Realize
by Shikamaru-Nara2
Summary: What the Akatsuki is planning an attack on Kononha! Relationships bloom in this time of preparation. Just how will Naruto and the gang be able to hold relationships and protect Konoha at the same time? There only one way to find out. You gotta read.
1. tears and ramen

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto. (That I know of) All the character in this fan fiction belongs to Masashi Kishimoto except for two ninja that you'll never see or hear of again. Unless you keep reading the series.

Chapter 1

(A/N:…): author giving his thoughts

It was another day in Konoha with our favorite team seven was following an intruder in the forest near the city. "Naruto he's heading you way. Slow him down" Said a raven haired boy known as Sasuke Uchiha to his blond teammate Naruto Uzamaki.

"Alright who ever you are that's far enough" said Naruto to the intruder with his kunai ready. After performing a hand seals he used one of his signature moves, the Kage Bushin no jutsu and the boy was backed by several clones surrounding the intruder each with kunai in hand. "3...2...1...charge" shouted the blond as him and his clones pounced on the intruder slashing at him. But he knew nothing of his opponent's skill level and he and his clones were blown away, destroying some after doing medium damage.

"As weak as ever Naruto. Stop fooling around he's gonna get away" Said Sasuke as he passed over his teammate while he was still giving chase.

"Stupid Sasuke thinks he know everything. Thinks he's so tough" grumbled Naruto as him and his clones continued there chase of the intruder.

"Not so fast." Said Sasuke after he threw a kunai knife which caught the intruder in the arm. "There is no point in continuing. So why don't you make my job easier by giving up" Sasuke tying to bargain with the intruder but got his answer when the intruder pulled the kunai in his arm out and got into a fighting position. "Fine have it your way" said Sasuke as a smirk grew across his face while he activated his clan's signature trait the "shaingan eyes". Sasuke attacked with a combo of kunai slashing and kicks, all the while using the sharingan to anticipate his opponent's next move and dodge. He dealt some damage but currently he was just tying to stall. He thought to himself as about how long it's been since he had a fight as good as this one as he let a couple of kunai fly but they were dodged. But it went exactly as he planed as 5 identical Naruto clones burst thru the bushes and unleashed there signature move the "Uzamaki Naruto barrage." "Took you long enough Naruto" said Sasuke mocking his teammate.

"Well if you would have caught him earlier we could have been done by now" shouted Naruto to his teammate Sasuke as he delivered a punch to the intruder sending him sailing into a tree.

Sasuke threw two kunai that caught the intruder in both his hand's nailing him to a tree. "And to make you don't try to fight back" said Sasuke before forming a few hand seals and clamped his hand over the wire he attached to the knife and unleashed his "Koton ryuuka no jutsu" which caused flame to travel along the wire and burn the intruders hands. Causing Naruto to gulp at the horrific sight.

Then out of the blue a tall man in a green vest with a mask over his mouth, a headband over one of his eyes appeared in a smoke cloud who was known to them as there Jounin instructor Kakashi. "Yo. I'll take care of this intruder. Me him and

Hokage-sama are gonna have a nice long talk. So team seven will get the rest of the day off and Sakura you can come out of the bushes now. And just as he appeared he disappeared.

The third final and only female pink haired member of team seven named Sakura Haruno stepped out of the bushes and asked the same question she always did "Sasuke would you like to go out on a date with me?"

And he gave the same answer he always did. "No I'm going to go train like you should be doing."

"Even Naruto always said something in these situations which was. "Sakura I'll go out with you if Sasuke won't."

"No I'll never go out with you Naruto" said Sakura once again shooting down her ever persistent teammate.

Back in there village Konaha the three were greeted by a blond konoichi know as Ino Yamanaka. "Hi Sasuke-kun! Hey I was wondering if you would like to go shopping with me like on a date.

"Like I told Sakura I'm telling you no." Replied the slightly annoyed boy.

"Yeah Ino-pig! So back off Sasuke mine" Sakura shouted triumphantly.

"Oh hey forehead girl and you too dead last" said Ino mockingly to the other members of team seven.

"Like you're one to talk Ino-pig" Shouted Sakura.

"Stop calling me pig billboard brow" Ino shouted back at Sakura.

Naruto heaved a sigh and said "I'm getting tired of this I'm gonna head to the Icharuka for some ramen" and walked away leaving the increasingly annoyed Sasuke with his two most annoying and still arguing fan girls Sakura and Ino.

All the while walking to his favorite place to eat Naruto kept thinking how unfair life was that he was always made fun of, how there wasn't a girl for him in all of the Konoha village because the either 1: was a Sasuke fan girl, 2: there parents didn't want them near him, or 3: they were to old, but the main reason why he was hated the reason why life was so unfair but was his greatest strength and secret was the Kyuubi sealed within him. He was to busy thinking he didn't realize the person walking in front of him until they collided knocking each other over. Looking in the direction he was going he now noticed a person with violet hair and white eyes who could only belong to Konoha's shyest girl Hinata Hyuga. "Sorry Hinata I didn't see you" He said while trying to help the girl up.

"Oh N…Naruto sorry I w…wasn't paying attention. It's my fault" the girl stammered while twittering her fingers while not even looking the boy in the eye like she usually did.

"Ugh how about we both take a little blame. So where are you headed" asked the Naruto scratching his head.

"Um…Ugh I j…just finished training so I was heading home for something to eat" she said nervously.

"Hey I've got an idea. Since were both hungry why don't we eat together" Naruto said with a grin across his face.

Shocked and a huge blush spreading across Hinata's face from what Naruto just said. Never in her life did she ever expect Naruto, the boy she admired from afar ever since she laid eyes upon him was asking her out on a date even if he didn't think it was one. "Ugh…um…I would love to Naruto" Said Hinata with a bright red face.

Naruto was confused by the fact that Hinata was blushing but shrugged it off like he did most things. "Then it's off to the Icharuka ramen stand" Shouted Naruto gleefully.

Um…Naruto what's ramen" asked Hinata still blushing.

Naruto's jaw dropped from the shock received from what he just heard. "You mean you've never had ramen? Ever?

"No not once" replied the girl.

"Were just gonna have to fix that now aren't we" said Naruto as he grabbed Hinata's hand which made her blush again and he led her in to the direction of the Icharuka.

"Grr I can't take this anymore! I'm sick and tired of you girls always bugging me about a date even though I keep saying no! All I want is some peace1" The Uchiha heaved aster most likely the biggest outburst of his life.

"Come on Sasuke-kun I know you don't mean that" Said Ino as she grabbed onto his which she would soon learn was a big mistake.

"Let me go! I told you to leave me alone! I hate you! Why can't you get that through your thick head! Your annoying" Exclaimed Sasuke after snatching his arm away from Ino and with that he gathered his chakra to his feet and began hoping from one roof to another to get home.

"It'll be okay Ino I'm sure he just needs to calm down" Explained Sakura but Inner Sakura was saying "Take that Ino-pig. Now you chances of getting Sasuke is zero."

"Justsniffleave me alonesniff" Said Ino between sobs and tears filling her eyes from Sasuke's icy words. "I just wannasniff be left alone" tears streaming down her cheeks, Ino turned from her friend/rival and ran home.

"Check" Said Shikamaru to his Jounin instructor Asuma over there game of chess.

"Check" Asuma called back to his student grin across his face.

Shikamaru was about to make his next move when a crying, blond konoichi ran past them. "I think that was Ino and I think she was crying. I had better go check on her. Oh and before I go checkmate" and with that he was after Ino leaving his teacher looking over the board only to find out he had once again lost to his student.

Ino burst into her house, tears still streaming down her face and runs straight for her room to cry into her pillow saying "I can't believe Sasuke said that to me. After all I did to try to get him to notice me."

Mean while outside of Ino's house was Shikamaru who was knocking on the door in vain. "How troublesome. I could have sworn she had ran in here but it looks like no ones home. Only one way to find out" Shikamaru said while reaching for the doorknob and giving it a turn to find out the door was still open. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Yamanako are you here" asked Shikamaru but he received no answer. "There not here but I do hear crying, that must be Ino. I hope she's alright" finally arriving at Ino's room where he found her on her bad crying into her pillow. "Hey Ino what's wrong?"

"Leave me alone Shikamaru" Ino managed to get out between sobs.

"I'm just trying to help" explained the boy.

"I said get out" Shouted Ino as she tossed a kunai in Shikamaru's direction.

"Wow you're pissed. The only thing I can think of that could get you this angry and sad is Sasuke saying he hates you" After hearing what Shikamaru said Ino's eyes filled with tears and she began to cry again. Taking a seat next to her whipping away her tears while he said. "Ino stop crying. Just forget about Sasuke he's not worth your tears."

"How? I've spent so much time chasing him I've shunned everyone else in Konoha. I've pretty much have no one left to turn to" said the girl while crying into the boy's chest.

"Don't worry I'm sure you'll find some one. I believe that there is always someone for somebody and sometimes that person could be right in front of you" said Shikamaru trying to comfort her.

Ino finally stopped crying but now a blast now creeping across her face and her heartbeat was growing louder and faster. She couldn't understand why this was happening, it had never happened before. This didn't even happen around Sasuke but now she was alone with Shikamaru. Shikamaru her teammate, Shikamaru who had been by her side, who protected her and who now was comforting her-then it hit her. She finally understood what this feeling was that she had. She now knew that Sasuke was just a crush but the one she truly loved was Shikamaru. "Um…Shikamaru I have something to tell you."

"What is it" he asked.

"I…um I-I ugh" Ino stammered face growing redder by the second. "Come on Ino get it together" she told herself. "Shikamaru I l-love you" In finally said.

"You what" asked Shikamaru a little shocked and confused.

"I said I love you Shikamaru! I love you! I love you!" Shouted Ino as she jumped toward Shikamaru embracing him.

A smirk grew across his face and said "Ino I've always loved you" and he sealed there new relationship by placing a kiss on her lips.

The girl face was completely red from what just happened and she said "Shikamaru you jerk! Why didn't you tell me before" she yelled while pummeling him.

"I didn't tell you because you would have just ignored me and continued after Sasuke" said Shikamaru while catching Ino's fist and asked "But lets say I did tell you and you said you didn't like me and rejected me do you think we'd be here right now" He asked before placing another kiss on his new girlfriends lips.

"Hey if it isn't my favorite customer Naruto and who's your cute friend" The owner of the Icharuka asked making Hinata blush.

"She's a good friend of mine who I'm treating to some ramen. So what kind of ramen would you like Hinata" asked the boy

"Ugh remember I've never had any ramen" replied Hinata.

"Then how about chicken ramen? It's my favorite" suggested Naruto which Hinata agreed to.

"So that'll be two chicken ramens" said the owner of the Icharuka as he turned to prepare the orders.

Several minutes later when Hinata finished her first bowl Naruto was finishing off his third, fourth or maybe even fifth bowl. "That was delicious! I think I'll head home now. See you later Hinata" said Naruto while he paid for the meal and prepared to leave when he was stopped.

"Hey Naruto why don't you walk you little friend home? It would be the right thing to do" asked the owner as if he knew what Hinata was wishing for.

"I guess you right. Come on Hinata I'll walk you home" Said Naruto as he outstretched his hand to lead Hinata home even though he had no idea where it was.

"S-sure let's go. I'll show you where it is because I know you don't know where it is" said Hinata as she stood up, walked off with Naruto and waved to the Icharuka owner to thank him what he had done. "Oh and Naruto the ramen was great."

"Huh don't mention it. It was only right" said Naruto.

The rest of there walk was filled with silence and every now and then Naruto tried to make Hinata laugh, which worked. When the finally arrived on the Hyuga said "W-well this is my house. T-thanks for walking me home Naruto."

"You're welcome Hinata. See you later" said Naruto as he turned to walk to his home.

"N-Naruto wait" Said Hinata a blush spreading across her face. Naruto turned to her and was about to say what's wrong when Hinata did something he didn't expect. While he was in mid-turn she placed a kiss on his cheek. Before he could even react she was already closing the door to her house.

On his way home Naruto, who still had a blush across his face was thinking about what happened. The whole walk home he said to himself "What just happened. Why did she do that? I've only seen people do that when they really like-" Naruto stopped short upon reaching his house he finally figured it out (A/N: Took him long enough). "She like me! Yahoo! She like me, she like me" Shouted Naruto as he opened the door to his house jumping around wildly. "I can't believe someone actually truly likes me. I have to see her tomorrow" said Naruto and went to sleep dreaming about his future with Hinata.

END OF CHAPTER 1

You've just finished reading the first chapter of my first ever and first Naruto fan fiction. I really hope you enjoyed it. For the guys I do plan to put more fight scenes in it. The girls you'll have your mushiness too. By the way I'm a guy who has no idea how he wrote a fan fiction like this. Well I'll hope you'll stick around for the next chapter.


	2. secrets out

Chapter 2

Symbols:

(A/N :…….) authors note. The author will be giving his own opinion.

"Let me ask you again who are you working for and why are you here" asked a blond woman, who appeared to be in her 20's and now is the current hokage of Konoha named Tsunade. On one side of her was Kakashi and on the other side was another Jounin but a female with black hair and red eye's known a Kurenai. When Tsunade did not receive her answer she nodded at Kurenai, who performed a few hand seals and the captured ninja began to howl in pain.

Kakashi knew that Kurenai was great at genjutsu illusions and making them feel real. But what he wanted to know was what she was making him see and feel. He leaned over to Tsunade and asked "Hokage-sama what is she making him see?"

Tsunade smirked and said "He's experiencing a very slow and a very painful death of him and all of his comrades." Hearing this made Kakashi cringe a little. "Alright Kurenai that's enough for now" and she stopped the illusion. "Now will you cooperate with us" asked Tsunade again but received no answer from the now heavily breathing ninja. "Fine have it your way. Kurenai" she said to the Jounin and the Jounin began her illusions once more.

Several minutes later, while still in the confines of the genjutsu the mysterious ninja said through the pain "I'll talk! Just make it stop!" Tsunade nodded at Kurenai who stopped the illusion. "I'm a member of the Akatsuki group, one of our leaders is a man named Itachi Uchiha. I was sent to gather information if I could on his brother Sasuke and the demon fox child."

All of the ninjas from Konoha had shocked expressions on there faces at the information the just received. Tsunade was the only one who spoke and the words she said were "Kakashi, Kurenai gather your students and if you see the other Jounin instructors of 10 and 12 (A/N: is that the one Lee is in?), tell them to come as well. Our little Naruto will have to finally let his friends know his and the adults of Konoha secret, the secret of the demon fox" and those words may change the future of those 12 kids lives.

Else where in Konoha cell 7 was in there usual training spot waiting for there teacher Kakashi when Naruto said "he's late again."(A/N: He has very good reasons)

Sakura replied with "actually he has about 20 more minutes before the usual time he gets here"

They continued to wait until Guy's cell approached and Guy asked "how's my greatest rival's team doing? Enjoying your youth" he finished and did his signature thumbs up and his pinging white teeth (A/N: How do the get there teeth to do that? I want mine like that.)

Sakura was approached by a boy who looked like a miniature Guy named Rock Lee, but every one just calls him Lee, who asked her "Hey Sakura would you like to go out with me on a date" and took a pose similar to his teacher/idol.

Sakura replied "no way your eyebrows freak me out." This obviously shattered the boy's heart until next time.

"Hey Naruto you look well. I'm still looking forward to our rematch" said a boy with long hair and white eyes like Hinata named Neji Hyuga.

Naruto replied with a grin on his face "good luck. Only next time I'll beat you faster."

Tenten, the third member of Guy's cell giggled at the thought of how much Neji has changed since he lost the fight to Naruto during the chunin exams. She then thought "maybe he needed to take a beating more often. Which she giggled to even more.

At what he just heard from the genins Guy was stuck with an idea. "Why waste your youth and try to do something later when you can do it now? You can have your little sparring match right here and now! I'll judge and make sure it doesn't go to far" Both Naruto and Neji nodded there head in agreement. "Then begin!"

Naruto's opening move was him throwing a kunai at Neji. Neji just smirked at the simple and easily deflectable move Naruto just used. "You should have learned during the chunin exams that won't work" he said before doing one of the Hyuga style move called **Eight Trigram Palms Heavenly Spin which was used to deflect projectile weapons. "Told yo-" Neji attempted to say when he was caught with a fist to the face from Naruto, which sent him sliding a couple of feet. While whipping a little blood from his mouth Neji said "So you figured that while I'm in mid spin I wouldn't notice you sneaking up on me. Very clever. I won't make the same mistake twice." Once he finished he activated his family's signature trait the byakugan, which gave him a 360 degrees view around himself. But a smirk of victory turned to shock as he saw that hidden in the area was a least 10 Naruto clones.**

**"So you've finally noticed the clones' Naruto said right before he and his clones let go a barrage of kunai and shurekein to Neji. **

**Neji saw that he had no other choice but to use his deflective move again but this time as soon as he finished he had to use the most devastating move in the gentle fist arsenal called the 128 heavenly palms to combat the 10 clones who were just as strong and stubborn as the original Naruto. But even though this move was powerful he wasn't dealing out much damage because the move was originally designed to fight one on one not ten, so instead of one getting the full 128 hits they only got at least 12. "Dang if this keeps up I won't be able to win' thought Neji. Suddenly Neji was struck with an idea. He used his Eight Trigram Palms Heavenly Spin but this time he used it offensively to blow away the clones. All his hard work drained a little of the clones chakra but due to them being actually living they had there own separate chakra that they got from Naruto so it didn't help much. He used this window of opportunity to charge at Naruto and gave him a palm to the chest and drained some of his chakra.**

**Naruto knew that now that he had to fight Neji at close range and he would need as much chakra as possible so he dissipated the clones. Naruto quickly went after Neji who was tired from his battle against the 10 Naruto's and gave him a swift kick to the stomach. Neji was going down or so it looked when he grabbed his leg to drain his chakra more then hit him with the 128 heavenly palms move and sent Naruto flying across the field with his chakra completely neutralized. Naruto tried to get back up but collapsed.**

**"Well the winner is-huh what" Guy stopped mid sentence before declaring Neji the winner because some how Naruto was getting back up.**

**"H-how" Neji wondered as he watched Naruto rise with his chakra level full, actually greater and still rising. But this chakra was different compared to the standard Naruto type but it was the same as the kind that he felt right before he lost during the exams. Not only was his chakra different so was his face. His eyes had the look of animals. Neji had no other choice he had to finish this fight here and now or things may get out of hand, he charged at Naruto to deliver his master strike that he used to defeat his cousin Hinata. But Naruto was charging to but with more power and speed that it left a trench in his wake.**

**Neji knew that these final moves would decide who the victor of this match. Neji watched as they drew closer and closer. They were no more than 5ft from each other, about to land there final blows when out of the blue they were stopped. It was Kakashi. "Yo, great match guys but I'm going to have to stop you for a bit." He explained to the boys.**

**"Kakashi how could you stop a match just as my youthful student was about to defeat yours and break the rivalry between us" Guy shouted to Kakashi.**

**"You're only half right. My student was going to win. You see my student has a special and devastating technique, that he was about to use on your student. Which reminds me we'll be talking about that later, just as soon as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura get to the Hokage's office. Your team is welcome to come too." After saying this he was gone. **

**Neji had noticed the slight change in Naruto's eyes and facial expression after Naruto had risen, which was the same look he saw during the chunin exams. But now Naruto was back to normal. Neji wondered what just happened, then he remembered Kakashi's words and said "I guess we shouldn't keep Hokage-sama waiting" and with that the 7 of them headed to Tsunade's office. But what they didn't know that Sasuke was watching closely with his sharingan eyes activated ever since the fight began so he could study Naruto and Neji's moves. He too had also noticed the change in Naruto during the last portion of the fight. He remembered that he also saw this change during the chunin exams. Now he was growing more and more curious of.**

** Else where Hinata and her team were having there own little training session. Hinata who increased her skills at the gentle fist style of fighting that objects she tried it on were reduced to ruble. But those things never moved so now she was taking part in the 3 way battle with her teammates which may seem unfair because Shino had his families ability to manipulate beetles by will and Kiba whose families dogs were trained to fight along side there owners and were also skilled at ninjutsu. But she had her own families skill, the byakugan which made it hard to sneak up on her and also it gave her the exact locations of vital points on the body this made her a very formidable foe. They were right in the middle of there fight and sweating when they were visited by Kurenai whose there Jounin instructor. "That will be enough practice for now. We need to report to Hokage-sama office" she told her students who agreed and they set off toward the tower.**

"Were finally here! I wonder what old lady Hokage want" Naruto said which earned him odd looks.

"Naruto you know I support you youths expressiveness but why did you call our Hokage old" asked Guy in a freaked out yet relaxed tone.

"Oh you guys didn't know she's our first Hokage's granddaughter which makes her 50 even though she looks like she's in her 20's" Naruto explained which caused everyone to gain a shocked look.

When the other 2 teams arrived they were trying to figure why everyone was looking so shocked. Shikamaru was the only one who said something and he asked "what's up with everyone.

Tenten responded by barely saying "We just found out that Hokage is actually 50" this caused everyone who just arrived to become shocked as well.

Naruto noticed there was something wrong with the picture. He pointed to Ino's and Shikamaru's direction and said "hey something weird is going on. Usually at the first site of Sasuke Ino would have grabbed onto him for dear life. But now she's doing it to Shikamaru."

Ino blushed and giggled a bit before she said "well it happened yesterday after Sasuke made me cry and I ran home. I'll let Shikamaru explain the rest."

Shikamaru just scratched his head and said "Well like she said it happened yesterday. On her way home she passed by me and I noticed that she was crying, so I followed her home to see what's wrong. When I got to her house I comforted her and got her to stop crying. Then I kind of told her how I felt about her and we became a couple." Once he finished he was squeezed by Ino which everyone got confused by but realized they'd have to get use to it at some point.

At the mention of yesterday Naruto finally remembered what happened between him and Hinata yesterday (A/N: Biggest idiot ever) "Um Hinata I need to talk to you in private" he said as he pulled Hinata to another corridor of the Hokage's tower.

Kiba asked "okay does any one know what that was about" But everyone just shrugged except for Ino and Shikamaru, who had a pretty good idea what it was. "Well anyone know why we're here?"

Neji replied "I think it's about some special skill Naruto has that-"

"Um Hinata I was wondering about that kiss yesterday. Was it a thank you for dinner kiss or an I really like you kiss' asked Naruto. But Hinata didn't give him an answer. She just averted her gaze to prepare for the possible heart break. "I'm sorry" he said. Hinata had now shut her eyes which were beginning to fill with tears. "I'm sorry that I didn't realize it sooner" the boy said before placing a kiss on her cheek.

Hinata's face turned bright red and her once tears of sorrow were now tears of joy as she jumped at Naruto hugging him. "I love you Naruto" she said.

Naruto wrapped his arms around Hinata and replied "I love you too Hinata."

"I'd hate to break up a lovely moment. But Naruto the Hokage request that you come see her" said and ANBU ninja who just came upon the hugging pair, who were now separated and red faced. They then followed the ninja to where everyone else was but Naruto continued into the office where Tsunade awaited him.

While outside Chouji asked the Jounin instructors among them, while eating a bag of chips "do you Jounin even know why were here?" They all just shook there heads.

A now agitated Sasuke shouted "then why are we here? I could be off training some where." Shortly after the ANBU ninja told them to enter.

Upon entering they saw Tsunade sitting at her desk with Kakashi and a rather large white haired man named Jarayai, who is one of the 3 senin of Konoha and Naruto standing in front of the desk with his head down. Tsunade said to the crowd "please take your seats. I'm pretty sure you're wondering why you're here and that is-" she was interrupted by Naruto.

"I just want to say one thing. Once you find out please don't hate me" said the boy looking toward his peers, especially Hinata with a sad expression on his face.

"Okay the reason why I have brought you here is we need to speak about something our fourth Hokage did. I'm sure you all know the story all know the story of the demon fox" everyone nodded. "Well you only know half of the story. Your only know up to the part of the sealing. You don't know where or what the fox was sealed in. The fox was sealed within an infant, who became hated because the fox was within him, he didn't even learn about this until some time ago."

She was then interrupted by Sakura who asked "then who's the kid. He should be about our age and attended the academy the same time as us.

Tsunade then said while walking over to Naruto "I was just about to tell you that. That kid is our little Naruto here."

"That obscured I think we, his close friends would have found out by now or he could have told us. Our parents could have told us by now. So do you have any proof about that" Tenten said questionably to Tsunade.

Tsunade replied "you see a law was passed over Konoha that we could never tell Naruto or the children of Konoha so he could live a normal life, but that failed. An academy instructor named Mizuki told Naruto what was inside of him and the seal slightly cracked so Naruto is now able to tap into the power of the fox. The proof I have is on Naruto. Naruto would you mind lifting your shirt and gather some chakra?" Naruto just did as he was told.

Everyone just watched as Naruto gathered his chakra and watched as some kind of tattoo appeared on his stomach. "Tha-that's the foxes seal" said Shikamaru in a shocked tone. "I did some studying on sealing techniques and what the seals looked like. That one is the one that was used to seal the fox. You can tell because those swirls coming out of it represents one of each of the fox's nine tails.

The continued to watch as he gathered more chakra and it began to show it's self outside and gather above his body. The watched as the chakra began to take the shape of a face, an animal's face, a fox's face, the face of the demon fox. They also noticed that before the foxes face appeared Naruto's face changed to, his eye pupils narrowed like an animals. Sakura asked "Naruto is it true are you really the embodiment of the demon fox?" He gave his answer as a nod. "And just how long have you Jounin knew about this"

Tsunade answered for them and said 'They've known ever since the sealing. Like I said we were sworn to secrecy. Besides the adults you 12 children are the only others who know. But the question is now that you know how will you treat Naruto?"

Lee spoke for everyone when he said "Why should we treat him any different? He's our friend! Plus it's not like he's a different person. We just know more about him now. If the fox was really out of control I don't think any of us would be here right now."

Tsunade smiled and said "just what I wanted to hear. Naruto you can now take a seat amongst your peers"

He walked over and took a seat next to his teammates. Once he arrived he was poked in the back by someone. When he turned around to see who it was he saw Hinata's smiling face who whispered to him "I don't care." Naruto face reddened and turned around with a big smirk across his face.

Tsunade was now once again sitting behind her desk and said "Now the second reason I've brought you here is about the intruder cell 7 caught was a member of the Akatsuki. There a group of runaway ninjas who have banned together to conquer all of the villages. Also to do it they want to get there hands on the demon fox's power which means they'll want Naruto." The last sentence scared the genins at the thought of losing there friend. "One of there leaders is a man named Itachi Uchiha.

Ino asked "I thought Sasuke was the only Uchiha left? Sasuke why didn't you tell us you have a brother?"

Sasuke replied "because I swore if I ever did see him again I'd kill him because he is the one who killed my entire clan." The sharp cold words Sasuke just said sent a shiver up the spines of everyone in the room.

Tsunade cleared her throat and said "thank you Sasuke for that bit of your family's history. Now like I was saying the Akatsuki are a very dangerous group so we'll be increasing security around the village and missions outside of the village will be reserved for those of a great enough rank. Lastly since there targeting Naruto and maybe even Sasuke I will be changing your trainers, but you'll still be in the same cells that you're currently in; you'll just be training under separate coaches. Starting with Kakashi's team. Sasuke you will continue your personal training with Kakashi. Sakura due to your great chakra control I want you to train under Kurenai and to strengthen your body I want you to also workout under the supervision of Guy. Lastly Naruto you will continue you training with Jarayai" she finished when Neji made an out burst.

"Naruto you've been training under Jarayai who is currently one of the three senin of our village" he asked.

"It's not really that big of a deal" Naruto replied relaxed.

Tsunade regained the floor and said "Neji don't worry you'll get a very good trainer too. Now Asuma's team. Shikamaru you are very talented in most arts so you're getting a medium level training program, so you will be paired up with Kakashi. Ino you will be training alongside Sakura with Guy and Kurenai. Chouji you lack a lot of skill so you will train under Guy. Now Kurenai's team. Kiba you are a very talented student and your tag team style with Akamaru makes you a force to be reckoned with. But you can't always count on Akamaru so you'll train with Kakashi. Shino you are a well rounded student with your control over a destruction beetle squad and your battle tactics. So to increase your tactiton skills I want you to train under Asuma. Asuma I don't want you to baby your students either. Finally Hinata you will not be training under any of the Jounin teachers. I'm aware that you've increased your fighting skills sense the previous exams. I also know of your great skills at making medicine so I want you to train to become a great medical ninja and be able to cure any injury. You'll be training with the best in Konoha which is me. Finally Guy's team. Lee I know you have basically no chakra so to change your trainer wouldn't do much so you'll continue on training with Guy. Tenten you've only been training with ninja tools thus far so I want you to train under Kurenai so you can train your weaponry skills with genjutsu. Last but not least Neji. I said I'd give you a good trainer too so I want you to train along side Naruto with Jarayai. Now that you all know your trainers we will meet at the training grounds tomorrow at 8 a.m. sharp. This now concludes our meeting" she said and the time of the meeting scared a couple of students because they never woke up that early.

Outside everyone parted there separate ways except for Ino and Tenten who dragged along Neji and Shikamaru against there will to do some shopping. Naruto and Hinata decided to just take a simple walk.


	3. training

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto. (That I know of) All the character in this fan fiction belongs to Masashi Kishimoto except for the ninja that team seven tracked down in the first chapter and a ninja in this chapter.

This is the TenxNeji chapter some of you've waited for. Hopefully you will enjoy there hook up like you may have did with the others.

Chapter 3

Else where in a forest far from Konoha a man that looked in his 20's, with short black hair and a Konoha head band with a slash through it sat by a fire. He was approached by a 17 year old with brownish hair a sand village head band, with a slash through it as well around his neck and a gourd on his back, he said to the sitting man "Itachi sir our scout has yet to return. I have reason to believe he was captured and may have leaked information to the hokage."

The man we now know is named Itachi responded with "I expected as much. I sent him to check on Sasuke. It appears you've grown stronger little brother. But our plans will continue as scheduled, as leader stated. This will be the point and time where you'll prove your worth to the Akatsuki Varri" (A/N: Varri is an original character of a friend of mine and me. So don't expect to see him in the show)

Varri nodded his head and said "I understand. Next time we meet you won't fair so well cousin" whispering the last part to himself.

Back in Konoha the sun is rising and we see our favorite teams awaiting there trainers when Ino yawned and said in a tired tone "What's taking them so long?"

Shikamaru laughed and said "what's wrong Ino rough night?"

Ino jumped on Shikamaru from behind and had him in a head lock and shouted "you know good and well I like my beauty sleep." She then loosened her grip and whispered "you would know how rough my night was wouldn't you Shika-kun" (A/N: interpret however you wish)

Her last sentence turned his face red then he said "I was just joking, how troublesome. Plus we all know how much you need your beauty sleep." That last part caused Ino to start strangling him again.

There were several puffs of smoke and came of voice that belonged to Kakashi which said "sorry were late. We would have been here earlier but we saw a lady whose children were lost so we decided to help out."

This caused Sakura and Naruto to shout "liar you always make us wait! You even made the others take longer" in unison.

Tsunade stepped in and said "calm down and report to your respective trainers. Sakura you will be with Kurenai and Ino will be with Gai. You will switch everyday of training. What are you waiting for I said get to your trainers!" The last part scared a couple of the genins and chunin and they rushed to get over to there trainers.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke, Kiba and Shikamaru and said "I would like to test my new trainees and old on there skills. I'll be using a training method of mine that highly resembles tag." He pulled out two bells and alarm clock and said "You three will have 3 hours to take a bell from me. The ones that have a bell, besides Sasuke will get a special reward. You are allowed to use any and all ninja arts and ninja tools in your possession. The exercise begins in 3...2...1...Go!" As soon as Kakashi said go the genin and chunin took there position. "Very good you've hidden well. Hopefully there won't be an idiot like-"Kakashi was about to finish when he was interrupted by Kiba.

"Okay this is going to be easy! I and Akamaru will take a bell from you in a matter of minutes." Akamaru barked in agreement before barking again and turned into Kiba's man-beast doppelganger form which Kiba took as well. "Let's go Akamaru! Down on all fours technique!"

Kakashi sighed, took out his book and said "spoke to soon"

Ino asked Lee in a shaky voice "Lee is Gai's training hard" after thinking about how strong Lee was in the chunin exams and now it was a while later and he had gotten even stronger.

Lee replied "not really unless you want to learn the moves of the lotus."

Ino gave a sigh of relief and said "thank god I thought I was going to go home sweaty, battered and bruised all over."

Gai stood in front of his star pupil Lee and the others and shouted in an upbeat tone "alright you youthful people were going to work up a little sweat1 I'm going to help you tap into that youth of yours by training and pushing you to your limits. First will start with 100 push-ups for the new student, while Lee will do his standard 500 push-ups with one arm, a couple of laps around the training area, and some sparing matches.

Lee saluted and shouted "yes Gai-sensei" and was about to begin on his push-ups when he was interrupted by Ino.

"Lee you lied to me you said his training was easy" she said almost as if she was about to cry.

Lee looked confused and said "no I didn't. This is my usual training. Plus after training with Gai I do more of my own freewill." And they began on his push-up and for every one Ino did he did five.

"What are you doing!" a loud voice that seemed to come from Gai who was yelling at Chouji, who was eating chips.

Chouji just said "I really don't feel like training so you guys can go on without me" and went back to eating his chips.

Gai sighed and said "this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you." Gai snatched Chouji's chips away from him. "You'll get them back after you finish your push-ups. All 200 of them." That caused Chouji to quickly began his push-up because he wanted to get his chips back.

Asuma took a drag from his cigarette and said "looks like I got the easy job of training one student. So you want to do this or what" he put out his cigarette and got into a fighting stance, but he got no reply. "Not much of a talker, huh? Good that way we can get straight to the point" shouting the last point and threw a point that was blocked by Shino.

Shino chuckled to himself then said "you'll end up just like the guy from the exams." His last sentence brought a puzzled look to Asuma's face, until he heard a scratching noise behind him, which meant Shino's bug army, was behind him. "As you can see my destruction beetles have surrounded you. You know your options so I suggest you choose wisely like it'll matter."

Asuma gave a smirk then said "I think I'll give my self a different option." He grabbed Shino's arm, rolled backwards kicked Shino into the air, jumped after him the slammed him into his own bugs which let Asuma escape both options that Shino presented to him. "You gotta think a head. You may have had an ace in the hole but I had three and unless you play with a loaded deck there's no way you can win. Plus stop letting the enemy have a chance to escape and just get the fight over with. You talk a little too much in battle but not enough when you not."

"And you say I talk too much. Well here's a move I've been working on." Shino divided his bug army into two separate groups and charged at Asuma and swung with his right.

Asuma blocked it and said "Well at least you didn't te-" he was cut off by something that came from Shino's right. Asuma thought to himself it couldn't be his fist and it couldn't be his leg because they were to close for him to throw a kick. He looked up just in time to see that half of his bugs were returning to his side. "So you used your bugs as a secondary attack that your opponent wouldn't expect because there so busy focusing on your fist or feet. Well let's see what else you can do."

Jiraiya shouted to Naruto and Neji "chakra control! Chakra control! Chakra control! Your control of chakra is the key to all jutsus. So new guy how your control?

"Its fine I guess" responded Neji.

"Well see about that. Would you gather some and force it to your feet. Now I want to" Jiraiya stopped mid-sentence and shoved Neji into the nearby lake and watched him make a splash and sink to the bottom.

Neji resurfaced to the sounds of laughter and asked "what was that for" in a highly agitated tone.

Jiraiya said clutching his sides "to see your chakra control. And may I say it's not very impressive. Naruto show him what real control is." Naruto took this chance to show up the supposed genius of Konoha and step out onto the lake.

Neji's eyes widened at the site of Naruto standing on the water and not sinking. "How are you doing that?"

Naruto "Exactly how I was told to do it. I send chakra to my feet so that it will push me away from the lakes bottom. And you call yourself a genius. A now even more agitated Neji, at the fact that Naruto was better than him at something crawled out of the lake to begin his road to perfect the water striding technique.

Else where with Kurenai, Tenten and Sakura were giggling at the sight of Neji being pushed into a lake, reattempting and failing a technique Naruto mastered. "Alright girls that's enough giggling. We have to get back to work. (A/N: I have no foundation on how you perform genjutsu so bare with me) Remember you must send your chakra into your opponent's eyes to blind them from the real world and make them see an image you have in your head. So basically I want you girls to have a staring contest and attempt to create an illusion for your opponent.

"At this rate you'll never get a bell. I really disappointed in you guys, especially you Sasuke considering this is your second time taking this test" said Kakashi, chuckling over his book to the genin and chunin. The fight had continued almost exactly the same as when Sasuke first took it except Kiba was playing the part of Naruto and Shikamaru was actually doing something, unlike Sakura. Shikamaru was busy talking to Sasuke about something possibly a plan, while Kiba and Akamaru in Kiba man-beast was rolling on the floor clutching there rears after being on the receiving end of Kakashi 1,000 years of death.

Shikamaru stood up and said "well we're just going to have to change that" in a triumphant tone as if he had already had his bell. "Kiba, Akamaru use fang over fang!"

They had finally stopped rolling around on the ground and Kiba said "huh what? Oh right. Let's go Akamaru fang over fang!" They shouted as they went into a wild spin headed straight for Kakashi.

"Sasuke you up" said Shikamaru signaling Sasuke that it was his turn to take part of the fight as he made the hand seals for his families special technique. Sasuke let fly multiple windmill shuriken. (A/N: the smaller ones he used against Orochimaru in the forest of death, not the one he used on Zabuza.)

Kakashi had just dodged Kiba and Akamaru's fang over fang and was now fending off Sasuke's shuriken with a kunai and said "well at least your acting like a te-" he was stopped mid sentence when his body was moving against his will. He then realized that he was now under the control of the Nara family's technique the shadow possession jutsu. So you used Kiba, Akamaru and Sasuke's attacks to mask the true attack which was your shadow possession jutsu. Very clever."

Shikamaru smirked at the recently received praise and said "we'll what do you expect from one of Konoha's brightest minds? Sasuke would you like the pleasure of retrieving the bells."

Sasuke sighed and said "whatever" as he went over to Kakashi, took the bells and tossed one to Kiba and Shikamaru.

Kakashi smiled behind his mask and said "you pass. We have a couple more minutes left on the clock so let's take a break. We'll be beginning our real training our next training session."

"Real training?" Shikamaru and Kiba shouted in unison because they thought what they just went through was the hardest training ever, with Akamaru barking in agreement.

"Com on! You youths should have more energy than that!" shouted Gai to a sparring Ino and Chouji while he sparred with his protégé Lee.

Ino aimed a kick for Chouji's head which he ducked under. He aimed a punch straight for her mid-section but Ino used the momentum from her previous to dodge his punch while in a spin so she could sweep kick him. Chouji saw it at the last moment and jumped. Ino just smirked as she saw he was in no way able to defend him self and delivered a windmill kick (A/N: A kick that follows the path of a windmill with one leg targeting the head/neck area while the other targets the ankle/shin region) which sent him into a spin until he landed on his back. Ino asked panting "how much longer do we have to do this for?"

Chouji who was still dizzy from Ino's kick said "we've been at it for nearly 30 minutes and before that you made us run several laps around the training area." Then laid his head back down on the ground because he was still feeling dizzy.

"No you have the rest of your lives to be lazy. You must spend your youth working to your fullest potential! Plus you haven't even started training with the waits yet." Said Gai which everyone groaned about except Lee who was shouting how cool his idol was.

"I finally…got it." Said Neji panting from the exhaustion of using so much chakra to use the water strider technique.

"Finally I took you long enough. Even Naruto here mastered that move quicker than you." Said Jiraiya, as he put away his work in progress to a growingly agitated Neji. "Well anyway your next test is at the art of summoning." Now saying this to a more excited Neji, as he took the giant scroll from his back and unrolled it. "Sign…in blood" Neji mad a small wound in his hand and signed the scroll. "Now focus your chakra, while focusing on summoning, slam your bleeding palm on the ground and hope for the best.

"Time to see if summoning is all what it cracked up to be." Said Neji prior to him slamming his palm onto the ground causing a blast of smoke. When the smoke cleared there stood an average sized but red toad with a black jacket on its back.

The toad opened its mouth to speak and said "I am Gamakichi son of Gamabunta. I hereby dub the Neji Hyuga wor-" he was cut off when Neji spoke.

"This is a summon? How is this supposed to aid me in battle? I'll fair better without him"

This angered the toad and he said "I was going to dub you worthy but now I see that you are nothing but an insolent brat." With those last words he disappeared.

"Well at least be thankful you've learned such a high level jutsu in such a short amount of time. It took Naruto maybe 100 more tries before he finally got it right, but he still screws up from time to time." Jiraiya said in a agitated tone because someone dared to call his frog summoning craft weak. Now he was glad he was never going to teach Neji "that" technique. But he wasn't really allowed to teach it to him anyway because the move was only to be passed from master, which he no longer was to apprentice.

The sound of an alarm echoed across the field. Once it finished Tsunade shouted "today's practice is over. Report to Hinata and me for medical treatment. Kiba was one of the first to apply the medicine to his aching muscles and his reply was "Yahoo! This medicine is great! I think I could go toe to toe with Kakashi for hours by myself!"

This caused Shikamaru to snidely say "You do that and even the best medicine in Konoha won't be able to help you. An idiot boasting about something they may never be able t do, how troublesome." (A/N: I think that's the first time I've had him say that) This of course made Kiba very angry.

Tsunade was rubbing her temples and said "both of you are giving me a headache. All of you can report home or wherever else for that matter, just get away from me." All of the genin and chunin began walking back to the village with the exception of Tenten who was going over to Kurenai and Hinata and Naruto who were talking about something.

Making sure Naruto and Hinata were out of earshot Tenten started to talk to Kurenai. "Um excuse me Kurenai-sensei there is something I want to ask you." Which she said in a quivering tone similar to that of Hinata.

"Sure you can ask me anything. You don't have to be scared" Kurenai said.

"Uh well you see there's this guy that I like, but I'm not sure if he'll like me back so I was wondering-" she said as she was prodding her fingers in a similar way to Hinata.

"Oh I get. You want a way so you can tell him but not be there just in case he reject you." She said once she figured out why Tenten was acting as shy as Hinata. "Well I suggest you-" she whispered the last part to make sure the still remaining Naruto and Hinata didn't here. "Understand" she said winking.

"Yeah" the now smiling Tenten said before she turned to catch up with her friends and Kurenai disappeared like jounin always do.

Naruto said "Finally there gone. Now for our own personal training Hinata." Then he began to smirk.

Back with our favorite teams Ino had her arms wrapped around one of Shikamaru's with her head resting on his shoulder then asked "Shikamaru you know what would be good" with a little seduction in her voice.

Shikamaru was a little embarrassed and happy that she was that close to him in front of everyone but was even more excited to find out what it was she wanted unless it was to make him go shopping with her. Then again he did like it when she tried on swim suites and other things and said "what?'

"Ice cream. I want you to take me out for ice cream. For some reason I really want some now." She said in a happy tone while smiling.

Shikamaru knew he couldn't say no to Ino especially when she was like this. Plus he got to spend time alone with Ino. He was about to agree when Chouji said "Oh can we Shikamaru."

Both Ino and Shikamaru groaned, there date was practically ruined because they had to take Chouji along. "Fine, how troublesome" Shikamaru agreeing to take him.

Sakura who was watching her friend turned to Sasuke and asked "That sound good. Would you like to take me out for ice cream too? Usually you'd say we should be training instead but we just finished."

Sasuke replied the same way he always did "No" in a cold tone, which made Sakura a little depressed.

"No need to worry Sakura I'll take you" said an energetic Lee at the chance to get a date with Sakura.

"No way!" she replied while sort of feeling sorry for him because he was the only one who showed interest in her besides Naruto, who should be asking her for a date any minute now. But when he didn't she looked around and said "Wait a minute where is Naruto? Hinata and Tenten are missing to."

Kiba replied "Who cares? He probably went on ahead to the Icharuka Ramen stand. After me and Akamaru go there were going home to crash."

Sakura looked back toward the training field only to see Tenten rushing to catch up with them. When the girl finally caught up she said "Neji there's something I want to show you" before pulling him off toward the forest, which no one paid any attention to.

Finally snatching his arm from Tenten Neji said "I think you've taken me far enough. What is it you want to show me?"

Tenten was a little surprised by the outburst but soon got over it and said "there's this move Kurenai told me about and I was wondering if I could test it out on you." Neji thought long and hard about being the guinea pig. After a minute, which felt like an hour to Tenten Neji nodded his head in agreement. "Here goes nothing. Kurenai I hope this works."

Enter illusion

Next thing Neji saw was that he in a forest of cherry blossom trees whose petals were slowly falling to the ground. Neji finally stopped staring at the site and said "if you plan is to distract your enemy with this site I'll give you a B. But seriously did you have to tie me to a tree!"

"Well of course sill. I didn't want you to run away" was said by a giggling Tenten who just came from behind the tree Neji was tied to. She was wearing a dress similar to Sakura's except it was pink instead of red, with a dragon which wrapped around her, she wasn't wearing any shorts, and the dress was very figure fitting which Neji thought to be a little revealing for a konoichi, even if it was an illusion yet still couldn't look away. "Neji you starring" said Tenten who was now staring at the ground swaying from side to side.

"It's just that a konoichi shouldn't be wearing something like that. It leaves little to the imagination." Neji said then thought 'what did I just say' but it was too late.

A smile crept across Tenten's face and said "Neji you pervert. Have you been picturing me with out my clothes on?" She moved closer to him and whispered "well do you wanna see if you thought right?" then watched his face turn bright red. She giggled and said "I was joking. Come on lighten up Neji." Then her voice took more of a seductive tone "but for helping me I guess I could give you this" she leaned closer to him, closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his. Neji's mind was in a whirl and closed his eyes too.

Illusion shatters

When Neji finally opened his eyes and he found himself in the same exact position. He was pinned to a tree by Tenten with her lips pressed to his. He pulled them apart and said, both of there faces were red and said "you tricked me. The point of the illusion was to get me to confess wasn't it?"

Tenten just smirked and said "you got it. Worked like a charm too. Now the only thing left to do is go tell the others" and started to go toward the village. Neji was going to stop her because he didn't want her to tell everything but she stopped turned to him and said "Neji stop being such a pervert." Her sentence confused the boy a little. "It's about what you said earlier about imagining me naked. I just remembered you can use your byakugan to see through walls and see the chakra lines inside some ones body. So then I thought what about clothing. You could be looking through mine whenever my back is turned." Then she turned back toward the village.

"Huh? Tenten I haven't used my byakugan to do that. But now that you mention it it's a really good idea." He shouted after Tenten, who was sticking her tongue out at him as he gave chase.


	4. Trouble in Suna

To those who asked about Hinata's training I didn't talk about it because I know little to nothing about medicine. But her training with Naruto is my little secret until next chapter.

This chapter is for the male fans. I say forget all that mushy girlie stuff time for some good old violence!

Trouble in Suna

Even though Konoha could be under attack at any moment it was still peaceful. However it was another story in Suna. In the town square there was a rather large crowd, making a large commotion. But the thing is it was the result of one single man. And his name was Varri.

"If you just tell me where he is I'll let you go. It's as simple as that and you and the others lives will be spared." Varri asked the man he was choking with a sand arm.

"I don't know who this he is." The man asked while gasping for air.

A crying woman pleaded "We don't know who you're talking about. Now can you please let my husband go?"

"You know exactly who he his! Where is that cousin of mine Garra?" angered Varri began clenching his fist tighter which causes the arm of sand to mimic further strangling the man.

The man was now coughing up blood while gasping for air. Unable to speak for himself a random person in the crowd shouted "How can you justify this? Even if we did know where Gaara is what makes you think we'd tell you.

Varri raised his other arm and made a fist trapping this random courageous person to be trapped in sand. (A/N: Just so you know unlike Garra, Varri's sand doesn't go solely by his wield so his body must move in unison with the sand) "Because if you don't I'm going to slowly kill off everyone in this village until I find him."

"Hm looks like a big crowd I wonder what going on here." Came a voice apparently outside and unaware of the cause of the commotion. The crowd slowly opened and revealed that the voice belonged to Kankuro who was being accompanied by Temari and Gaara.

"So you're finally here. I would say nice to see you again but it not." Varri smirked as he tossed the two civilians he was strangling aside.

Temari had a confused look on her face and asked "Excuse me but do we know you?"

"What you've already forgotten me? Well I don't blame you it has been a long 10 years since I've been exiled. I'm your cousin Varri. I've come back to claim what I've wanted. Gaara's life and the demon within him." Those words made Gaara curious of what exactly this so called cousin of theirs could do. The villagers sensing a fight cautiously backed away.

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that." Temari and Kankuro said in unison while readying there fan and puppet.

Varri smirked at his cousins' bravery "Fine killing you to will be a nice bonus." Then shot blast of sand at the trio which seemed to explode on contact creating a mist of sand. Once visibility increased it was revealed that the blast never touched them. Gaara had shielded him self with his sand shield, Kankuro by his puppet and Temari neutralized the blast of sand with a blast of wind from her fan. "I guess it wouldn't have been any fun if you three died that easy.

"Who said we're going to die at all." Kankuro then sent his puppet after Varri, who noticed it was behind him right before it tried to constrict him and knocked it away with sand. But he left himself open for attack. Seeing this Temari took this chance jumping skyward, swung her fan and shot a huge gust of wind at Varri. Varri saw it coming but had too little time to block or dodge so he went with the third option of counter striking. Both hits landed and sent both of them skidding away from each other. Varri received a secondary attack from Gaara for good measure.

"Temari you okay" Kankuro asked concerned. She only received a glare from Gaara which could either mean are you alright or what are you doing you need to focus. She chose the first one.

"I'm fine I just underestimated him a little. It won't happen again. Besides there wasn't much force behind it." She said apologetically.

"You dare to call me weak? Fine I guess it's time for me to stop playing around with you children. Let me show you a move I've invented on my years of traveling" Sand began to cluster into a mass next to him and took the form of a wolf, which charged and tried to take a bite out of Gaara. Gaara deflected it which seemed to have destroyed it until they saw it rematerialize. "I call it the lupine sand doppelganger. It has a will independent of my own." The sand wolf began repeating the process over and over again trying wear Gaara down which wasn't very effective. "Now for you two" he said turning to Temari and Kankuro. "While my pet plays with him I'm slowly going beat you until you're at deaths door then push you through. Say goodbye- What!" Varri was now being constricted by Kankuro's puppet.

"Who is at whose mercy now?" Kankuro said chuckling. A smirk grew across Varri's face. "What's so funny? I must have missed the joke." Varri gave a loud yell and there was an explosion of sand that came from his body. "What the heck?" he shielded his eyes but when he dropped his guard he was face to face with Varri. "H-how?" he was then begun to get strangled by a sand arm.

"I've trained my self in the toughest conditions while wearing sand armor. It's only natural that I'm faster and stronger when I'm not wearing it." And the sand arm began to slowly tighten its grip around Kankuro's neck.

"Oh no you don't!" Temari shouted heading toward Kankuro's rescue. "Take this!" she gave her fan a mighty swing sending a huge blast of wind picking up a bit of sand.

"How pitiful." He gave his free arm a flick canceling out Temari's wind then began strangling her as well. "Is this the best you've got after all these years? I thought you guys were better than this but obviously not. He began to tighten his grip. They were now gasping for breath a little blood trickling down the sides of there mouths. "Don't worry Gaara your next." He turned to look at his cousin but was met with a face full of sand. "Good but not good enough-" he was cut short when he was being strangled by a sand doppelganger of Gaara, who was now slightly twitching.

Kankuro who was now released from Varri's grip along with Temari said "Oh great you woke it up you idiot. If you make him any madder you'll face the demon itself. So we should wrap this up now." Gaara's sand clone then exploded sending Varri airborne. "We're not letting you off that easy! Time to return the favor!" Varri was then being constricted by his puppet and the faint sound of bones beginning to crack could be heard. Varri started gathering sand around his body so he could use the explosion to dispel it like he did last time. "Temari he's going to use that technique again do you think you could do something?"

"Sure thing. Wind scythe jutsu!" She gave a mighty swing of her fan creating a whirlwind that used Varri's own sand against him. "Gaara wrap this up."

"Sabakukyu, the coffin of crushing sand!" Gaara raised his hand causing a cocoon of sand to wrap around Varri. "You're an eyesore. Disappear. Sabakusoso, imploding sand funeral!" He clenched his fist causing the cocoon to implode around Varri killing him. The bloodied sand returned to the gourd on his back. "Let's go" he said to the others and walked away.


	5. test your skill

Is it me or are the number of hits I'm getting decrease as a new chapter is added. But I can't let my fans who've stuck with me this entire time. I won't stop writing till this fic is done. Then I'll most likely write another and more but those will be centered on the separate pairings unlike this one. Well on with the chapter.

Test your skills

Symbols:

"…" speaking

'…' thinking

Back in Konoha it was now our favorite four teams sixth day of practice. Shikamaru groaned and said "What a drag. Do we really have to practice on a Saturday? I have better things to do. Most of them involving my beautiful girlfriend." Whispering the last part to Ino making her face turn red.

"For once I agree with Shikamaru's laziness. Where is ero-sensei and baa-chan what is she doing here?" Naruto said pointing at Anko who was standing among the four jounin instructors.

Kakashi smirked and said "Very good observations Naruto. Well the hokage is going over paper work about an incident in Suna. Jiraiya felt he was a little old for the training were doing today and decided to do an unadvertised book signing. And Anko is here as a proctor of fights."

"We already know she's a proctor. We almost died during her part of the exams." Naruto replied remembering the horrid exam.

Anko stepped forward and said "Let me explain Kakashi. As Kakashi said I'm here as a proctor. I will be surveying the sparring matches between you in teams of three against the jounin."

"What? We have to fight our teachers?" Everyone shouted at once.

"Exactly. Except you won't know who you're fighting, who you're paired up with, or the conditions. This will be able to test you cooperation and be able to adapt to any situation." Anko stated.

"So you want us to be able to work under any condition no matter who we're paired up with?" asked Kiba.

"That's exactly what we want, in a nut shell." Kakashi said to acknowledge that Kiba had a basic understanding of what was going on.

Anko threw a fist into the air and shouted "That's enough talking! The sooner we get started the sooner we can all go home. First match team will consist of Rock Lee, Sakura Haruno, and Chouji Akimichi vs. jounin Might Gai. The conditions for the win are to K/O or keep Gai floored for 10 seconds. Combatants take your positions!"

Sakura was a little worried about the match. 'Gai is a tough opponent. Most likely as strong as Kakashi sensei. Even after all this training Chouji and me have a low chance a winning. I don't even think Lee could do it. We have to find away for him to out smart him. Get him to drop his guard. Now what's the one think Gai drops his guard for above all else? That's it!' She snapped her fingers at her genius plan. "Hey Lee. I have an idea. What I want you to do is-" whispering the last part so Gai wouldn't hear. "Understand? Now go tell Chouji the plan and tell him to wait for the signal."

Lee saluted and said "Yes my beloved Sakura. I will not fail you." And rushed off to tell Chouji the plan.

As Lee went to tell Chouji the plan Sakura thought 'Why does he always say that to me. Well at least he pays attention to me, unlike Sasuke…Wait did I just consider going out with Lee? What's happening to me?' But of course inner Sakura had something to say 'Even Ino-pig gave up on Sasuke. She's even going out with Shikamaru and seems better off. Of course that gives you a better advantage of going after Sasuke. So I say forget Lee and stick to the original plan of taking Sasuke for our selves!' But Sakura was a little unsure. 'But what if Sasuke keeps shooting us down. At least we know we can count on Lee. I don't know.'

Over with Lee and Chouji, Lee had just finished telling Chouji the plan "Remember wait for the signal okay."

"Fine whatever." Chouji replied and went back to eating his chips.

"Hey don't waste our youth talking. It's time to see what your youth power can do?" Gai shouted to the talking ninja, who were now getting into position.

"Okay ready? Fight!" Anko shouted signaling the fight to begin.

Lee approached Gai but didn't attack instead he said "Gai sensei how can I bring myself to fight you. You've taught me everything I know. You're my idol" with tears in his eyes.

"It's okay Lee I understand. How can anyone bring themselves to fight the great Might Gai?" Then struck his famous thumbs up pinging white teeth pose.

"Gai sensei you so cool" Lee then struck the same exact pose as Gai.

Chouji who was watching Lee finally saw what he was looking for "There's the signal." Chouji expanded his body and said "Art of expansion followed by art of the human juggernaut." Chouji went into a spin and charged toward Gai, who was to distracted by Lee to see Chouji coming until Chouji rammed into him sending him into the woods, somewhere.

Everyone on the side lines just watched Gai fly off in silence until they broke out in laughter. Kiba was clutching his sides from the pain of laughter and said "Oh my god did you see that?" before he collapsed still laughing.

"He was totally tricked. How couldn't he see that coming" Ino said then went back to giggling.

"Yeah Naruto would have even seen that" Shikamaru said while he was rolling and clutching his sides.

Naruto was so busy laughing that he wasn't paying attention to what he just said and said "Yeah even I would have-HEY!"

Anko finally calmed down and said "I think we can safely say that Gai has lost this match. Well on with the next one. This match teams will consist of Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Kiba Inuzuka vs. the jounin Kurenai Yuhi. The condition for victory is that Ino, Shikamaru, or Kiba must land a blow on Kurenai within a 10 minute limit. Take you positions."

Before the match began Shikamaru thought about who he was facing. 'Kurenai a woman which I will not hit (A/N: Has never seen his fight against Temari so I have no idea if he hit her but as far as I can tell from his fight from Kin he doesn't want to hit a girl) and a genjutsu specialist so she'll most likely try to distract us with the illusions until the time limit is up so I'll need something to shield myself. Maybe a book might work and the only person I know with a book with them is Kakashi.' He looked over at Kakashi who was reading said book in question. "Hey Kakashi I need to borrow that book of yours. Can you lend it to me?"

He looked up from the book and replied "I don't think you should be reading thi-Hey!"

"Thanks." Shikamaru had already taken the book, pocketed it and heading for the fight.

"I'm ready when you are" Kurenai said sitting in a chair she brought with her"

Kiba was a little confused by the chair and said "Uh what's with the chair?"

"All you guys have to do is touch me to win. Plus we don't know if you'll even reach me and I don't want to stand a whole six minutes not doing anything. So I brought a chair so I can be comfortable."

"Well it's time to begin the match. Ready? Fight!" Anko shouted signaling the next match.

Kiba's first move was to pull the hood over his eyes so he wouldn't be affected by Kurenai's illusions while Shikamaru pulled out the book he borrowed from Kakashi and pulled it close to face. On the side line Naruto noticed the title and the circle with line through it on the back. He turned to Kakashi and said "Is that what I think it is?" Kakashi just smiled through his mask. "I can't believe that you gave it to him. Does he even know what it's about?" Kakashi just shrugged.

Shikamaru noticed that Kiba was also doing the same thing with hiding his eyes. But unlike Kiba, Shikamaru didn't have a heightened sense of smell and barely knew where Kurenai was. He watched from the corner of the book and noticed that Kiba was now going on the offensive but it wasn't going to well because Kurenai was now using that chair of hers as shield. Akamaru on the other hand was rolling around on the ground. 'Why isn't he helping Kiba? Maybe he got hit by genjutsu and thinks he's in a field of flowers. But the question if how Ino doing' He suddenly received a kick to the mid-section and was grounded. When he looked up he saw that it was from Ino. "Guess that answers my question."

"Give it back" she shouted before she delivered a punch right where Shikamaru's head would have been if he hadn't rolled out of the way. "I said give it back" Then went back on her onslaught.

Shikamaru could only block the punches that was coming his way "What are you talking about? I haven't taken anything from you. You're under one of Kurenai's illusions. Wake up!"

"I saw it first! Now give it back!" Then she aimed a round house kick at his head, which he ducked under.

When Ino had her back turned Shikamaru took this chance to get behind her and pin her arms to her sides. "Ino listen to me. Do you really think that I'd take something from you? No, because I know something like this would happen."

"Let me go!" She elbowed him in the stomach then turned and tackled him to the ground and began to shake him vigorously. "I saw that dress first! Now give it back so I can buy it on sale!"

'Oh great she thinks she's at the mall and is fighting with someone, who she thinks I am that took a dress she wanted. Even worse it's on sale.' He then caught a fist aimed for his head "Ino it's me Shikamaru, your boyfriend and I need you to snap out of it." She was still trying to release her hand from Shikamaru's grip. 'How troublesome were running out of time. And Kiba isn't doing so well by himself.' He looked over in Kiba's direction just in time to see him get hit with Kurenai's chair and sent skidding across the training area. 'I have to get her to realize that what she sees is not real. But how? It has to be something that wouldn't happen in that illusion world. Come on think. There has to be something I can do. I've got it. I really don't want to do this in front of everyone but I have no choice.' He wrapped his free arm around his waist, pulled on the arm he still had in his grasp until there faces were about an inch from each other "Ino it's time for you to wake up." He then pressed there lips together.

The only thing the other who were watching just gapped at the site and thought 'what the heck? I came to watch a fight not Shikamaru and Ino kiss each other.' Then they turned away to give them there privacy with red faces. The couples turned to there significant other with even redder faces.

When they pulled away from each other Ino words were "Shikamaru that was great. But wasn't I just at the mall?"

"No that was an illusion. Were still in that fight with Kurenai. Now that you're awake you think you can fight?" She nodded her head in agreement. "The lets see if we can pull off a win." He said pulling them up and holding Ino close at his side.

"I'd hate to break up this lovey dovey moment but you only have 2 minutes left." Anko said to remind them they were still in a fight.

"2 minutes huh? That's plenty of time. Hey Kiba I think it's time you use that new technique Kakashi taught you."

"I think you right. That move may be the only thing that can save us." He pulled out a couple of shuriken and squeezed them so tightly in his hands that they bled. He then tossed the bloody shuriken at Kurenai who deflected some with her chair and caught the rest. 'Perfect.' Kiba pulled out a scroll, unrolled it, smeared some blood on it, rolled it back up, made a few hand seals slammed it on the ground and shouted "Shinobi conjuring, Earth style: fang pursuit jutsu." And out of no where eight dogs sprang from the ground and latched onto Kurenai.

"And for good measure shadow possession jutsu. Ino you have to deliver the winning blow." Shikamaru explained which Ino agreed to and charged at Kurenai.

Anko cleared her throat and said "I will now begin the final count down." Ino was closing in on Kurenai. "5…4…3…2" Ino was a couple of feet from Kurenai when she leapt toward her and went into a spin kick. "1…" Anko was about to say 0 but Ino had landed the kick just in time. "Well this match goes to the team consisting of Kiba and the lovely couple Ino and Shikamaru." The last part made there faces go red. "Okay next match is the team consisting of Sasuke, Tenten and Shino vs. Asuma. The condition for victory is the team of genins must immobilize Asuma. Take your positions!

While getting ready for the fight Sasuke's thoughts were 'I can't believe I'm paired up with these weaklings. I could do this by myself if I wanted to.'

Shino's thoughts were different 'I shall make this fight swift.'

But Tenten's were barely on the fight they were along the lines of 'Aww I'm not paired up with my Neji-pooh. (A/N: I just made Neji sound like he's whipped huh?) Well at least I can show him how much I've improved.'

"Okay fight!" Anko shouted signaling the start of the third match of the day.

Asuma signaled them to come on with his hand. "Come on show me what you've got." Sasuke was the first to take Asuma's advice and charge at him and swung his fist. Asuma grabbed his arm, tripped him, slammed him on the ground and then sat on him. He took a drag from his cigarette, blew out a cloud of smoke and asked "Care to try again?" to a Sasuke that was struggling to get up. Sasuke threw his legs up and used them to grab onto Asuma's neck, who already knew what he had planned. Asuma rolled backwards and quickly stood up so that Sasuke's, who was no just dangling from his neck attempted throw, had failed. Asuma grabbed onto Sasuke's leg and tossed him over by his current teammates.

"Sasuke if we want to win we have to work together" Tenten pleaded and Shino just nodded in agreement.

"I can handle this by my self!" Sasuke then charged back at Asuma and the process repeated and charged at him again.

Tenten sighed and said "Why are men so stubborn? Well we're just going to have to help him whether he likes it or not. Shino I need you to create a bug screen to block Asuma's view of me." She drew a few kunai and when the screen of bugs formed she followed them in the direction of Asuma and when she was close enough she threw two kunai through the bugs at Asuma.

When Asuma saw the kunai he kicked Sasuke away, drew a kunai of his own and deflected Tenten's. "Well at least there is some cooperation going on" But the next thing he knew was that he was surrounded by Shino's bugs. They had created a barrier around him yet they weren't attacking him. "Why aren't they attacking?"

He got his answer when he heard Tenten shout "find out" and hundreds of ninja tools broke through the bugs aiming for him. Asuma tried to deflect them but he still was grazed by some and began to dodge.

When the onslaught stopped and the bugs cleared he found that Tenten was behind him and had two sickle like weapons at his neck, Sasuke with a kunai at his gut and Shino's bugs at his feet. "Well it looks like I'm out of choices so I surrender." He raised his hands in the air to show that he had.

Anko raised her hand and shouted "The winner is team Tenten, Sasuke and Shino. Now it's time for the final fight of the day. It will be team Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata and Neji Hyuga vs. Kakashi Hatake. The condition for victory is that they must land an unblocked cooperative attack between at least two of them. Combatants take your positions."

Neji sighed and said "Why'd I have to be paired with you two? Anyone else would have been better."

"Hey I kicked your butt in the exams. Or did I beat you so hard that you forgot about that fight as soon as it ended?" Naruto said triumphantly which made Hinata giggle and Neji madder than he already was.

"Whatever. Just don't get in my way" He said before turning to head towards his battle with Kakashi.

Naruto smiled at Hinata, which made her blush and said "Ready to see if that training paid off?" she smiled back at him and nodded.

"Okay fight!" Anko shouted signaling the start of the final fight.

"Now let's see how well you've improved over this weak of training." Kakashi pulled out his favorite book. "I'm ready when you are."

"What are you doing we're in the middle of a fight and your reading a book!" a raging Neji declared.

"It shouldn't matter if I'm reading or not considering who I'm fighting." He said then smirked at a sentence he just read.

Neji could either take that as a insult or compliment but due to him already being angry he took it as a insult. "Read a book in the middle of fighting me will you? I'll show you." He began running at Kakashi.

Naruto tried to warn him "Neji he's trying to trick you" But it was too late Neji was already out of earshot.

As soon as Neji was within striking distance of Kakashi he threw a palm at him, but Kakashi disappeared, reappeared behind Neji with his hand making the sign for tiger over his closed now book "Konoha's most secret and sacred technique: 1000 years of pain!" and gave Neji the super powerful but poke and sent him flying back to where Hinata and Naruto stood.

"I tried to warn you"

"Will you be quiet I don't need your help!" and he prepared himself to go after Kakashi again.

"B-but Neji we're supposed to work together" Hinata tried to convince him, stammering less than usual but it was to late because they were watching the whole process repeat itself almost exactly the same way as it did before.

"We told you team work is the key" Naruto explained knowing better than anyone what happens when you try to take on Kakashi one on one.

"Fine if you think you're so great why don't you do it while I watch?" He crossed his arms and sat on the ground.

"Okay. Let's go Hinata." Naruto took off with Hinata hidden behind him. As soon as Naruto was sure he was close enough to Kakashi he attacked with a punch, Kakashi ducked out of the way in time which left Naruto in a leaned over defenseless state. Or so he thought. Kakashi was about to attack Naruto when he saw Hinata was kart-wheeling over Naruto trying to axe-kick him, which he rolled away from just in time.

"You've improved. I might not be able to read my book." Naruto took Kakashi's compliment with a smirk and was already back on the offensive and charged at Kakashi trying to kick him but Kakashi was just out of his reach when Naruto, who was holding Hinata's hand at the time launched her forward to close the remaining distance. Kakashi was almost surprised by this attack but recovered quick enough to block, but out of nowhere Hinata brought Naruto forward launching him at Kakashi while still holding on. While dodging and blocking theses series of almost unimaginable moves Kakashi thought 'How could these two have gotten this good in only a week when I've never seen them train together. Unless they've been training together in secret!' He tossed Naruto away from him, which sent Hinata with him but he caught her and used his body to shield her from any damage from the fall, and they quickly got up to prepare for the next attack. "So you've guys have been training by yourselves away from our eyes."

Naruto smirked and said "Nothing gets past you huh Kakashi-sensei."

Neji watched in disbelief as he saw that Hinata and Naruto were doing better than him against Kakashi and they even seemed to have a chance of winning. But some of the others on the side lines saw something else. Ino seemed to be focusing hard on the fight and said "Shika-kun do you see that" Taking enjoyment in using the nickname she gave him.

He nodded and said "I see it. That explains why we've never seen them after practice."

"So you guys see it too. So I'm not the only one." Tenten added in out of nowhere.

"Tenten you see it too? It's so cute." Ino squealed.

Sakura, who was in the middle of this looked confused. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Look at there hands. The original way of people fighting like that would have the pair holding a little past the wrist. But the way there doing it is slightly different. Look how there holding hands with there fingers intertwined." She explained then sighed.

Sakura still looked confused. "I still don't get it."

Ino sighed "It's hopeless. She won't understand until she experiences it or maybe not ever." Sounding a little agitated.

"Yes I will. Come on please tell me." Sakura whined.

Tenten and Ino smiled and simultaneously said "You'll understand when you're older." (A/N: I wonder if anyone will know where I got that from)

Back on the battle field Naruto and Hinata had Kakashi on the defensive. Then all of a sudden Hinata and Naruto stood back to back, Naruto leaned forward which lifted Hinata onto his back. Naruto began to spin rapidly making the two seem like a top. Kakashi had a lot of trouble dodging this technique because he had to watch where Hinata's feet were coming from and roll out of the way whenever Naruto would lunge them forward. When the finally stopped spinning they ran at Kakashi, jumped into the air and kicked with there foot which was closest to the others. But Kakashi caught there feet and tossed them backward while dodging the kick they tried to deliver in there back flip. "Hinata were going to try that one last move we practiced. You ready." She nodded even though she was unsure. Naruto finally let go of Hinata's hand and said "Here goes nothing." He created three shadow clones, charged at Kakashi and swung at Kakashi, but the punch was blocked, the three clones attacked with there follow up tri-kick while saying "Na…Ru…To" (A/N: remember the Uzamaki Naruto barrage requires 4 clones. Bu he only created 3. Why you ask? Keep reading.)

But even though each kick was blocked the combined force still lifted Kakashi off the ground. Kakashi knew what should have been coming next but then he remembered Naruto only created three clones. 'Why only three'

Kakashi was soon going to get his answer. As soon as he left the ground the four Naruto stood in a circle and asked "Hinata are you ready?"

Hinata nodded her head and said "Ready." As she leapt into the center of the Naruto's that had gathered there hands together and that as a spring board to launch Hinata into the air. When she caught up to Kakashi she created 3 shadow clones of herself! Kakashi was so surprised that he forgot to respond to what was coming next. The three Hinata's flipped while saying "Hi…Na…Ta."

And as soon as the Hinata's kicked Kakashi sending him speeding toward the ground Naruto and Hinata said "Barrage!" But Kakashi recovered from the fall quick enough to save himself from any really serious injury. When the Hinata's floated back to the ground they each were caught by a Naruto, the original Naruto caught the original Hinata and the clones disappeared.

Kakashi smiled at the genin through his mask and said "Very good. You pass."

Anko raised her hand in the air and said "The winner of the last match of the day is team Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata and Neji Hyuga.

Naruto's face lit up and he hugged Hinata. "Yay we did it! We beat Kakashi sensei!"

Hinata's face turned bright red "N-Naruto p-people are staring."

Naruto didn't let her go he just said "Who cares if the stare. I want them all to know Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga love each other!"

The jounin, Sasuke, Kiba, Shino and Chouji had taken this chance to leave because they didn't want to be caught in the middle of what was going to happen soon. Leaving only Kakashi, Anko and Gai, who went over to Anko to and said to her "Hey there hot stuff. How about me and you go out?" While striking his infamous thumbs up pinging teeth pose.

"Sorry I have plans." She grabbed onto Kakashi's jounin vest and began dragging him while saying "Come on. Our deal was that if I judged the fights you'd take me on a date." Kakashi really didn't have a reply except having a stream of tears coming down his face.

"Darn you Kakashi! Now you're even taking my women from me! It makes me so mad how you act so cool and smooth!" Gai said while shaking a fist before he disappeared.

Naruto had cut his hug with Hinata short when Neji charged at him shouting "Imbecile! Stay away from my cousin!" They were currently in a hand to hand fight for dominancy, being watched by Lee and Naruto who were supposed to jump in if the fight went too far.

The girls on the other hand surrounded Hinata asking her questions like "When did this happen, how did it happen, and was he a good kisser?" But it all sounded like a bunch of couple of squeals to the guys. (A/N: Women how nosey and most of all troublesome. But we need them.)

Naruto and Neji had finally stopped fighting, for now. Naruto said "What are they talking about?

Neji shrugged and said "Girl stuff I guess"

Lee shook his head "I've never understood them."

Ino chose that moment to walk over to Shikamaru and say "Shikamaru I was wondering if you wanted to go swimming with me later." Shikamaru didn't have to think about it because A. he was going to spend time alone with Ino and B. He got to see her in a swim suit. He was going to answer right away then Ino said "but…" Shikamaru groaned. There just had to be a but. "I want to bring Hinata and Naruto along with us. You know like a couples date." Shikamaru thought much harder about this one because what he could do with Ino was severely limited. That was until Ino clasped her hands together in front of her body, poked her lower lip out as if she was pouting and swayed from side to side. "Please Shika-kun." Saying it in a cute voice with a blush on her face.

'Dang, how troublesome' He knew he whenever Ino did acted like that he couldn't resist the need to grant her every last wish. But worst of all she knew that. "Fine."

"Then I will be accompanying you." Neji said with his mind already made up.

"Neji you don't have to watch every last thing I do with Hinata. Stop being so over protective. Don't you think I can protect her?" Naruto said as if Neji was acting like a father trying to see if a guy was worthy to date his daughter.

"Not really. Plus Ino said this is a couples date. As of a couple of days ago me and Tenten are together. She would have my head I she found out I didn't tell her about it." As soon Neji finished that last sentence Ino rushed back over to the girls and began questioning Tenten the same way she was doing Hinata.

It was then that Sakura realized that out of all her friends she was the only one alone. Everyone else was leaving with there other to get ready to meat back up at the Yamanaka flower shop at 3:00 except for Sakura and Lee who had left earlier to train. She was just wandering through the forest when she heard the sound of something hitting something, and decided to check it out. When she arrived at the source of the sound she found Lee punching and kicking a tree. "Hey Lee what are you doing."

"I'm training I want to make sure I'm ready for when ever these Akatsuki guys come. I want to be able to protect the ones I love. Which of course includes you Sakura." Lee explained looking at Sakura while still accurately attacking the tree.

What Lee said gave Sakura's face a slight tinge of pink. "Oh Lee." She shook her head to clear up the thoughts she just had 'that's the second time that that's happened. But at least he pays attention to me. Sasuke really doesn't seem to care.' She shook her head again.

Lee was confused by her strange behavior "Is there something wrong?" He then began the push-ups part of his

"Oh it's nothing. Just thinking." She put on a fake smile. 'Why do these thoughts keep entering my head? I never thought Lee was that cute before. He does look a little cute when he does that smile of his, how good he looks even when he's training like this, but maybe if he changed his image a little…ack! Those thoughts are coming back! But maybe I could give Lee a chance.' Of course inner Sakura had an opinion 'No way. Remember the eye brows. Plus what about Sasuke?' 'He could probably do something about them. And Sasuke barely pays attention to me. I can't believe I'm going to do this.' "Hey Lee."

"Yes Sakura?" He looked up at her.

"I would like to say I'm going give a try at being your girlfriend."

"Sakura does this mean what I think it means?" He said with that smile of his she liked for some reason.

"Yes Lee. But on a few conditions."

"Anything Sakura. I'll do it."

"I want you to change your looks a little. I don't want to feel like I'm dating Gai."

Lee thought hard about what Sakura said. But within a minute or two he decided that he'd accept her condition. 'It would be a little weird if she thought I was Gai-sensei.' "Okay Sakura I'll go change right now" And he took off running toward time.

Before Lee was out of ear shot Sakura shouted "Meet me at the Yamanaka flower shop at 3:00 and bring something to swim in!"

END!

I had to cut it off here because the swim part would have made this chapter too long. But don't worry I'll have it done soon.


	6. Hubba Hubba hot spring!

Alright here comes the next chapter! Thank for all of the reviews. Well you guys know the story. Relationships develop even under the intense pressure of an oncoming Akatsuki attack, yet our favorite teams have chosen to take a break from training to go swimming…wait swimming? But I never said where. Only I and the characters know and they were pretty happy about me and Ino's choice (A/N: ahh my beautiful lovable Ino. Hey I don't just use Shikamaru's name just because he's my favorite character.) Now let's get this show on the road!

Hubba hubba hot spring!

At the Yamanaka the clock showed that it was nearing the time that Ino suggested that they meet for there little get together. But she couldn't leave until her mother relieved her of her duty. She was ready go and was already wearing her swim suit under her normal clothes and her bag at her side. She giggled to herself and thought 'Just wait until Shika-kun gets a load of me in this thing.' At that moment a customer chose to enter the Yamanaka flower shop. Ino smiled like her mother always told her to when greeting a customer and said "Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop how can I help- Shika-kun!" She shouted the last part realizing her boyfriend had just walked in.

Shikamaru gave her a slight wave and said "Hey" lazily; he too was carrying a bag of his own. He began to wonder around the shop looking for something.

Of course Ino being Ino got angry with her boyfriend because how could he have just blown her off like that. She was Yamanaka Ino! She had hundreds of fan boys asking her out everyday and now she actually had a reason to blow them off and that reason was now practically blowing her off. 'Shikamaru if I wasn't allowed to leave my post I'd slap you clear across the room' Once again another customer entered. She gave that same smile as before "Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop how may I help- Sakura what are you doing here?" Once again Ino sentence was cut short upon noticing her friend had entered.

"Well isn't it obvious I'm coming with you guys." She said walking over to her while brandishing a bag of her own.

"Sorry to burst your bubble forehead girl but this get together is for couples only."

"But Ino-pig I do have a boyfriend and he's on his way right now!"

Ino was going to give a nice comeback but she couldn't because two more customers had entered and once again "Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop how may I help- Hey Tenten, Neji." They also had bags of there own.

Neji didn't reply but was dragged over by Tenten who said "Hey Ino. We aren't late are we? And Sakura's here too."

"Nope were still waiting for Naruto and Hinata. Maybe even this supposed boyfriend Sakura says she has."

"Oh my god Sakura you have a boyfriend? Who is he?" Tenten asked in a bubbly attitude while still holding onto Neji, who was a little agitated with her flailing him around like that.

Sakura face gave a slight blush "Oh he's someone you know. I finally decided to give in to his advances and see where they take me. He-"

Sakura was cut short because two more customers had entered the shop and Ino had once again needed to put on that smile and say "Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop how may I help- Hey Naruto, Hinata!" Ino shouted to the couple which consisted of the smiling idiot Naruto and a severely blushing Hinata, most likely due to the swim suit she was wearing under her clothes. Same as the others they were holding bags.

Upon noticing the other Naruto shouted "Yo so we didn't miss the party. Well what are we waiting for?"

Hinata, whose face was slightly redder smiled, bowed and stammered "H-hi" before hiding behind Naruto as if everyone could see what her swim suit looked like.

Tenten had a puzzled look on her face and asked "What's wrong with Hinata?"

Naruto looked at the blushing girl behind him and said "I really don't know. She's been hiding behind me ever since I ran into her. So what's been going on here?"

Tenten turned back to Sakura "Oh yeah Sakura was about to tell us who this boy friend of hers is."

Naruto smirked a little and said "So you've finally given up on Sasuke?"

Sakura was a little angry with him but she knew he was right. "I guess you can say that. Well like I was saying he someone you know and-"

She was once again cut off when a guy around Neji's age burst through the door and locked it behind him because he was being chased by a horde of fan girls. He was wearing a black martial artist gi (A/N: There the ones only highly skilled martial artist wear. Like I said it's black and has ties going down the middle with a high collar), his hair was black rather short and spiky (A/N: Think like Naruto's but shorter) and he wore his leaf head band around his waist like a belt. For some reason he was carrying a bag as well. Ino looked mad, most likely because this guy had locked the door to the shop "Hey you know that's bad for business!"

The guy bowed apologetically and began looking around the store until his gaze landed on Sakura. He walked over to her and said "Hello my beloved Sakura. As you asked I've arrived on time."

Sakura turned to him slightly agitated and said "Who are you?" But when she got a good look at him she lost the anger in her voice and said "And where have you been all my life? But alas I already have a boyfriend and I can't just cheat on him."

The guy seemed unnerved by what she said and replied "Am I really that different? I know I've changed but you don't even recognize me?" Sakura had a puzzled look on her face. The guy sighed and said "Maybe this will refresh your memory." He gave an familiar thumbs up pose; his teeth pinged and said "I'm Kanoha's handsome devil. My name is Rock Lee!"

Sakura's face turned bright red. Her thoughts were 'You can say that again' But what she said was the same as everyone else's, including Shikamaru who was ignoring them this whole time while he looked for whatever it was he was looking for. "Lee is that you? You look different!"

But Naruto gave a different reply which was "Dog brow you got rid of those huge eyebrows!"

As soon as Naruto finished his sentence he received a fist to the face from Sakura who shouted "Don't make fun of my boyfriend!"

"So this is that mysterious boyfriend you were talking about. I've got to admit even though it's Lee he is kind of cute" When Shikamaru heard that last word he twitched a little.

"So Sakura you're finally going out with it Lee?"

Sakura's face was a little red from her reaction to the previous statements "Yeah I guess I am. What's that supposed to mean Ino-pig? Are you trying to say you want to date Lee?

"It means exactly what it means forehead girl. Trust me that is the last thing I want to do. I already have a boyfriend. Even though currently he's acting like an idiotic, insensitive jerk- huh?" She stopped mid-sentence because she was now face to face with a bouquet of roses that were being held by Shikamaru, who's wasn't looking directly at her but from the corner of his eye with a completely red face. Ino face gained a nice little shade of pink when she realized the reason why he was ignoring her earlier was so he could do this. She nearly leapt over the counter to hug him and say "My boyfriend is such a sweet, caring, loving and wonderful guy. I'm sorry Shika-kun." She then turned him to face her so she could kiss him.

All of the other girls in the shop just smiled and said "Awww there so cute together." This made the couple break apart with red faces.

But Neji and Naruto's reaction was more like "I think I'm going to be sick."

Lee's however were "I can't wait to do that with my Sakura. Oh my beloved Sakura."

They weren't listening. "Ugh let me get a vase for that and ring those up for you" Ino began frantically search for a vase and began to ring up the items.

"Wow our shop is really packed today." said a blond woman with features similar to that of Ino who just entered the room.

Every turned to her and said "Hello Mrs. Yamanaka."

While Ino said "Hello mom" because she knew if she ever called her mom Mrs. Yamanaka she'd be smacked across the room.

She smiled and said "Hi everyone I came to relieve Ino of her duty so she can go with you."

"Thanks mom I just want to finish ringing up these last couple of things."

So Shikamaru you're buying flowers? Got you a little girlfriend? Now remember you must treat her with the utmost respect, protect her and try do try to live up to her expectations."

Ino face tuned red but she turned back to work before her mom noticed and handed the vase of flowers to Shikamaru. But her face turned even redder when he handed them back and said "Don't worry Mrs. Yamanaka I plan to will make sure I live up to every expectations of your daughter."

"Oh Shikamaru" Ino walked from behind the counter an hugged him once again receiving the aww's and I want to puke from her friends.

Ino mom squealed, ran over to the couple, and knocked Shikamaru away so she could hug her daughter "Ino you finally found yourself a boyfriend! I'm so happy for you! And he's such a talented one at that."

"I know. And he's really nice too. He's may be a little lazy sometimes but I know how fix that."

"I'm so proud of you. I can't wait for your father to come home so I can tell him the great news. But with him being over protective and all he may hunt Shikamaru down and kill him. So I guess we'll have to keep this our little secret."

Shikamaru looked at his girlfriend and her mom as the squealed and jumped up and down. 'Strange how they act so much alike. Something tells me when I marry Ino in the future she's going to act just like her mother. I'm going to have one troublesome life ahead of me. But an even stranger thing is I'm actually looking forward to it."

Ino and her mom finally stopped and the older of the Yamanaka girls said "Well I'll take these flowers and put them in you room. Now you run along with your friends. And Shikamaru make sure you do as I said and watch over our little Ino."

Ino started to whine "Mom you're embarrassing me" What some people would have seen as annoying Shikamaru just saw it as cute. Her mood then completely changed, she threw her fist into the air and shouted "Okay guys let get going I'm leading they way!"

"Ino we've been walking for hours. Where are we going?" Sakura complained.

"Sakura that's a lie and you know it. It's not even been ten minutes since we left the shop."

"Are you sure you know where we're going Ino? I've never been in this far into this forest in all my years living in Konoha." Tenten said clutching onto Neji as if at any moment a wild animal was going to jump out of the bushes.

The two Hyuga's activated there byakugan and scanned the area. Neji then turned to Tenten and said "You can let go of me now. There aren't any dangerous things in this part of the forest."

Hinata nodded in agreement. "Brother's right. The animals even seem to be avoiding this area."

"Don't worry everyone if anything happens I shall protect you!" Lee said

"Stop complaining. You guys are acting like Shikamaru and he's not complaining at all." Ino told them.

"That's because he wants to what kind of swim suit you're wearing. Isn't that right Shikamaru?" Naruto said while laughing and nudging Shikamaru, who just groaned.

"Well of course he does. It's not my fault I'm so beautiful and the object of his desire. Well anyway were here." She moved a low hanging branch out of the way and revealed a lake that appeared to be steaming. Lake with steam from it equals…

"It's a hot spring! Ino, how did you know about this place?" Sakura exclaimed with excitement and surprise in her voice.

"I knew you'd like it. I found it when I was walking around the forest one day." She replied.

"In other words you got lost and somehow found this place?" Shikamaru asked while smirking. Ino gave a fake laugh proving he was right.

After reactivating his Byakugan Neji scanned the area "It appears that almost no one has been by this place in years. There no foot prints or markings on the trees. It's as if this area is invisible to the outside world."

"But the question is how come no one else sees the steam cloud that's coming from the spring." Tenten asked bewildered.

"That's easy. It's because of all the trees. The trees catch the steam in it' braches so it's not scene above the forest. And the reason why it's not seen in any other area of the forest is because the mist is absorbed by the trees before it spreads too far." The genius Shikamaru explained. "But that's enough explanations are so are we going to change or what?"

They all nodded in agreement. Naruto said "This may be the only time I've completely agreed with you." The guys immediately began changing in front of the girls. They didn't think anything was wrong with it because they all had decided to wear what they were swimming under there clothes. When they were done it was revealed that Neji was wearing white swimming trunks, Shikamaru had brown, while Naruto wore orange and Lee green. "Hey why aren't you girl changing?"

All of the girl's faces turned a very dark shade of red. Hinata fainted but Naruto caught her, Tenten, Ino and Sakura turned away. While slightly glancing back then quickly turned Sakura said "Not in front of you! We're ladies!"

"Yeah plus your hormones might go into over drive and kill from blood lost from the brain. Then who'd carry our bags when we go shopping. We're going over there to change." Ino commented while pointing to an area shaded by trees. "And no peaking." She added while winking before they walked off.

The guys were sitting near the edge of the spring waiting for there girlfriend to come back so Shikamaru attempted to strike up a conversation. "Guys you know we're really going to have to this village."

"What are you talking about I plan to defend this village from the Akatsuki until I draw my last breath against them." Lee said clenching a fist.

"We already know we have to protect this village. That's what we ninjas of the leaf do." Neji added.

"Yeah Shikamaru that may be the stupidest thing you have ever said." Naruto added in finally.

Shikamaru sighed "That's not what I mean. We have to protect this village for them." He said while nudging his head in the direction of the changing girls without actually looking at the changing girls. "We have to make sure they stay alive, we have to make sure we come back alive to make sure they aren't sad and someone's there to protect them."

"Yeah you're right. We can't let them get hurt." Lee said staring at the sky.

"True. We can't allow that to happen. We must not allow that future to become a reality." Neji said with his arms crossed.

"Yeah those Akatsuki jerks don't stand a chance! Who's with me?" Naruto shouted thrusting his fist into the center of the group.

Neji and Shikamaru laughed at Naruto then said "Idiot. But you're right." Before putting there fist in the center as well.

"I completely agree Naruto! We must fight with everything we have and more!" Lee shouted eyes on fire and threw his fist in the center as well.

The little friendship moment was broken when the heard Tenten, Sakura, and Ino shout in unison "Holy cow Hinata so that's why you wear that baggy jacket all the time." (A/N: about that holy cow thing. You see I've never cursed in real life so neither do the people in my fics.) It was soon followed by "Catch her before she falls!"

"What was that?" Shikamaru shouted while turning in the direction of where the girls were.

"They might be in trouble! We should do something!" Lee said almost getting up.

Neji sighed while Naruto smirked. They both said "You'll find out in a minute." They turned to each other with questioning expressions on there face then said "How would you know about that?"

Neji stood up ready to fight Naruto. "I'm her cousin. I think I'd know what goes on in her life!"

Naruto stood up ready to defend himself from Neji. "Well I'm her boyfriend! I think I'd know these things!"

"Hey cool it Naruto! We don't need this turning into a fight!" Shikamaru said while trying to hold Naruto back.

"Settle down Neji. You shouldn't waste your youth fighting every second." Lee said while doing the same.

Then they heard a combination of Ino, Tenten and Sakura voices as they said "Aww are you guys fighting over us?" in unison. The boys turned to see the girls wearing there own bathing suits. Ino was wearing a red one piece that had a v cut that began just below her navel and ended at her shoulders, there were little red strings crossing across the front and seem to be holding the suit together so she wouldn't all of a slip out of it and she wore a pair of red sunglasses in her hair. Upon closer inspection there was a little heart shape birth mark a little to the right of her navel. (A/N: I'm not saying it's really there. Then again I'm not saying it's not there. She's always has those bandages around that area so I'm not certain) Sakura was wearing a dark blue bikini with white trimmings but she had on a little tie on skirt of the same design on covering the lower part of it. Tenten wore a light blue bikini and had a little white cover for her buns. Finally Hinata, whose face was trying to hide behind the other girls but they wouldn't let her, she wore a white one piece with a red ribbon near the top, a brown skirt similar to Sakura's but with a flower pattern that showed only her legs, arms and a little bit of her neck as it normally would but what she was really worried about was the fact that even for her age she was a lot more endowed in the chest area then most of the other girl in Konoha. (A/N: 50 points, if we have points to the person who knows what game I got the idea for the girls swim suits from. I will reveal the answer at the end of the chapter. And that thing about Hinata is actually true for those who don't know.) The guys seeing there girlfriends in this reacted how any young male would have reacted. They had a giant nose bleed that fired each of them into the hot spring. They all watched laughing a little, Hinata almost fainted. Ino just watched the water waiting for them to resurface. "Our looks may have killed them anyway. It should be a crime for us to look this good" She then struck a sexy pose and winked.

When the guys finally resurfaced they all said in unison "We want you to never wear that-" but they got cut off by the girls.

"We know we know. You don't want us to ever want us to wear these in public"

Naruto tilted his head to the side "Actually we were going to say-"

"-Never wear those when you alone with us-" Shikamaru continued.

"-You never know what might happen." Neji finished.

"It's all because you girls have such flawless youthful bodies." Lee commented. He earned dirty looks from the guys while the girls blushed. "What? You guys were thinking the same thing." They all gave a slight nod in agreement.

After everyone settled into the spring, with few complaints about temperature they sat by there other. Ino decided it was time to strike up a personal conversation. "Hey Hinata exactly why do you like Naruto?"

Hinata was still desperately trying to hide her figure behind Naruto, with a red face she turned away from Ino and said "Ugh I-I don't want to t-talk about it."

"Come one Hinata were all your friends here. You can tell us. And stop hiding we already saw you." Ino said as she inched closer to Hinata.

Hinata shook her head wildly before saying "No. I can't."

Ino placed her hands on Hinata shoulders and whispered in a caring voice "Don't worry. You can trust us. And just so it's fair we'll tell you why if you tell us." She turned to the others "Right guys!" She didn't give them a chance to answer.

"O-okay. But you have to promise not to laugh." Hinata said finally agreeing.

"We'd never do that Hinata." Sakura protested.

"Yeah we're your friends you can trust us."

"W-well you see it all s-started back when we we're in the a-academy. M-most people saw Naruto as an idiot or dead l-last when ever he screwed up the s-simplest jutsus. But I saw something d-different. Every time he s-screwed up he was sad before covering it up. I thought he w-was brave. I was shy and always s-scared. He was e-everything I wasn't. He was like a role m-model. And that's why I liked him." Hinata stammered most of the way but said her last sentence without as much as a blink.

"Hinata that's so cute!" all the other girls squealed at the story she told.

"Hinata has it really been that long?" Naruto asked looking a little sad. "I'm sorry it took me this long to realize this. I'm such an idiot." He said before hugging her making her face turn red.

"You're just now realizing you're an idiot how dumb." Neji said mocking him.

"Neji don't say that!" Tenten shouted glaring at him.

"It's fine. He should consider himself luck that he's related to Hinata or I would give him what for like I did in the exams."

"I'd like to see you try!" Neji said growing angry.

"Anywhere! Anytime!" Naruto said getting pumped up for a brawl.

"How about right here! Right now!"

"STOP!" They heard someone shout. They turned to the source of the voice to find it came from Hinata. "I don't want Naruto and big brother Neji fighting. I want you to be friends."

"Fine" they both said. But they really were thinking 'You do know this isn't over?'

"Way to go Hinata!" You finally said a whole sentence without stammering!" All the girls cheered.

"Well I guess it our turn to hold up our part of the bargain. So I'll go first." Ino said to change the subject. "Well as you know I was raging Sasuke fan girl until not to long ago. Which was when I figured out I liked Shika-kun here. I always wanted a guy who I can trust, who was nice, sweet, be there and look out for me. I thought Sasuke might have been him but I finally realized Shika-kun has been doing that for years now ever since we were kids. He's taken care of me when I was sick, watched after me during battles. Especially when I did my mind transfer jutsu technique. He maid sure my body was in the same condition it was in upon my returning to it. And he didn't try anything perverted when I wasn't in my body like other guys might have done. And now I'm beginning to think all of those valentines gifts I got from a so called secret admirer were from him."

Shikamaru gave a little smirk "You're right. It was less embarrassing to do it that way."

"What do you mean? You could have just given them to me straight forward." Ino said a little bewildered.

"I have my reasons okay." He said before he turned away.

Ino puffed out her cheeks "Fine be that way. I'll find out sooner or later." She then went back to normal happy go lucky Ino. "Well Tenten how about you?"

"Oh me. I'm rather simple. I didn't want to be like all the other girls in the village and be a Sasuke crazy fan girl. Then I met Neji. There was just some thing about him. Even though he barely showed his emotions I though I could fix that. So here we are."

"Wow that is short." Sakura said while laughing.

"Hardy har har Sakura. It's your turn anyway." Tenten with a hint spite in her voice.

'Dang karma' Inner Sakura swore. Sakura gave a forced laugh. "Well I'm a recovering Sasuke fan girl." She stated as if she was in a recovery group. "Well me I always wanted someone to think I was pretty and to like me because as you can see I haven't really developed into a girl most guys would look at." She sighed a little. "And well as you know Sasuke really wasn't paying attention to me. So earlier today I decided to give up on him and I ran into Lee. And I realized that he was the one who was doing everything I wanted."

"So basically you and Ino both were searching for something that was right in front of them."

"Hey don't compare me to her! What's that supposed to mean billboard brow/Ino-pig?" The two shouted in unison before glaring at each other as if they were about to fight.

"Calm down it was just a joke. But I know what will make you feel better. The boys share!"

"Okay I can deal with that." Sakura nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! Shika-kun you can go first!" Ino suggested bright eyed.

"Why do I have to go? I don't want to. It's too troublesome." The genius groaned.

"Because I want to know what you like about me. And I went."

"That's because you agreed to. I never did."

"Come on Shika-kun? Please do it for me." She whispered to him but everyone else still heard.

"Whipped." Naruto and Neji said in unison before making sounds of one.

"I'm not whipped!" he said a little agitated.

"From what we can tell you're pretty whipped." Naruto said before laughing.

"Naruto." Hinata called out to get him to stop.

"Fine. Fine."

"Who's whipped?" Shikamaru said to a now grimacing Naruto.

"Shika-kun are you gonna tell me or not?" Ino asked with her head tilted to the side while pouting.

He sighed in defeat. "What a drag. I'll do it but only because your cute."

She stopped paying attention after he said he'll do it and began hugging him. "Thanks Shika-kun. Of course you do realize your only reason can't be because I'm cute. I already know that."

"I've got to here this. I want to know what he sees in bossy, mean and crazy Ino-pig."

"Shut it forehead girl. Were gonna see what Lee sees in you next." Ino smiled triumphantly while Sakura scowled.

"Strangely enough those are some of the reasons I like her. I just can't stand saying know when she get that look on her face that reminds me of the girl I like from all those years ago." Ino gave him a questioning look while at the same time look like she was gonna smack him if it wasn't her. "Don't worry Ino it's you. I'm talking about you when we were younger. As you know do to our dads being on the same team when they were younger they were good friends. So they introduced us when we were younger with hopes of making us good friends. At first I thought Ino was bossy like all some of you do. After a couple of years I kind of found it a little cute that even though we were older and more mature she still reminded me of the little Yamanaka girl. Then there was the incident that was on her sixth or seventh birthday." Ino once again had a puzzled look on her face. "Don't tell me you don't remember?" Ino gave a little shrug. Shikamaru sighed a little. "Well anyway my family went to the same place to have my birthday because it was the day before Ino's. So Ino came up to me and said "Happy Birthday Shikamaru." Then she hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek."

"I remember that!" Ino shouted finally putting two and two together.

"Well she most likely didn't that much about it at that time but I did. After even more years the feelings grew and I wanted to tell her. But on they day I planned to tell her she was a Sasuke crazy fan girl. I was a little crushed. So I gave up on her and repressed my feelings all these years."

"Aww Shika-kun I'm sorry. How am I ever gonna make it up to you?" Ino said on the verge of tears hugging him.

"It's okay. You becoming my girlfriend is enough."

"Aww they make such a cute couple." All the girls including the still hiding Hinata said in unison.

But Naruto wanted to have a little fun. "So Shikamaru is that the only reasons you like her?"

'Huh what do you mean?"

"You know any other reasons? Any reasons she may have developed over the years?"

"Naruto I'm not like you. So no not really. I would like her even if she looked like how she did when we were younger." He said as he slid his hands onto her waist. "I don't really care about that thing." He gave a little smirk. "But if a girl has a couple of assets it's just a bonus."

Ino gasped when Shikamaru slid his hands down and gave her rump a little squeeze. "Shikamaru you perv-mppff." She was silenced when he covered her lips with his.

Practically everyone's faces turned red which was soon followed by Neji and Naruto saying "I'm really gonna be sick at this rate." But deep down they really wanted to do the same thing, they just couldn't work up the courage.

"Well as soon as Ino and Shikamaru stop trying to suck each others face off Lee can get on with his story of love and devotion to me." Sakura suggested sighing. But the statement was completely ignored by the kissing pair. "Come one Ino this was your idea in the first place!" Sakura shouted growing agitated, yet still getting no reaction.

That was until Ino arched her head backward because Shikamaru was ravishing her neck. "Do I h-have too? This j-just feels so g-good." Ino said between gasp and moans.

Sakura knew that if she didn't try to stop them now they may end up seeing more of the two then they would have wished. Sakura with a little help from Lee strained to pull the pair apart "Yes! No one else…has yet to even try much less thing of going that far yet…but you two seem to be trying to release…all of your sexual tension…at once."

Ino held Shikamaru, who was still working on her neck whined "But I don't want too. Sakura you're just jealous that Shika-kun and I like to show our affection so much." But Sakura wasn't having it. With one last heave the finally pulled the pair apart. "Aww I was having fun too. Fine I'll listen to Lee's story!" She said pouting.

"Thank you. And try not to go crazy like that again while were all watching." The last sentence made the couple turn one of the darkest shades of red they've ever seen, which Sakura took joy in. "Now Lee tell us your story."

"Well it all started at the beginning of the chunin exams. When I first laid eyes on Sakura I thought she was so beautiful. She was a beauty among beauties, a goddess and the prettiest girl I've ever laid eyes on! And so I had to make her mine, don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting that your property for anyone's taking but as a girl I had to make my girlfriend before anyone else did!"

"Aww Lee." Sakura said before she latched her self onto Lee, who was now drooling.

"Slow down forehead girl. Didn't you just try to stop us for the same thing?" Ino commented, which Sakura just stuck her tongue at her.

"Guess that only leaves Naruto and Neji. And Neji gracefully accepts going first. Isn't that right Neji?" Tenten said while smacking him on the shoulder.

"Huh? Fine. Well it's because of this stupid seal that's placed on me." Neji said pointing to the markings on his forehead. "It was hard being normal when you knew that your main purpose was to protect the main branch of the Hyuga family. But Tenten made me think differently. She made me believe that there was another purpose in my life. That I can love and care for another without worry of the curse. She makes me feel happy."

"So basically she makes you get in touch with your touchy feely side?" Shikamaru said slyly.

"Yep she's made him even more women like." Naruto said grinning widely.

"Watch it! Shikamaru consider your self luck that we have all these witnesses here. And Naruto remember the only thing keeping you alive is the bond you and Hinata share."

"Or is it the fact that we all know you'll just lose again like in the exams?" Naruto said, his grin growing wider.

"Let's not start this again. Naruto it's your turn to wow us." Tenten suggested getting ready to hear a good story.

"Yeah Naruto! Tell us! Tell us!" Ino and Sakura chanted in unison.

"No." Was the only thing he said.

"Just as I thought. He's all talk and no action." Neji said arms crossed.

"Even for you Naruto that is a little weak." Shikamaru said shrugging.

"I have my reasons okay!" Was Naruto's reply before turning away.

But Hinata had her heart set on hearing Naruto's reason tried to console him. "Come on Naruto. There your friends. You can trust them. They won't laugh." Practically giving the same speech everyone gave her.

"It's not them laughing I'm worried about." He said now staring at the water, back still turned.

"Come on nothing bad is gonna happen if you tell them. Please do it for me Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked looking cute while at the same time looking sad if he were to say no.

Naruto heaved a sigh before turning around "Fine I'll do it. Well I warn you this story is a tragic one. As you all know I was raised as an orphan. I had no parents to care for me and now brothers or sisters to take care of me. I grew up in that cold apartment of mine for years with no one to say they loved me or welcome home. But I being the Kyuubi's host didn't help to much either. I was hated by the entire village for something I learned about not to long ago. I was never allowed to play with any of the kids because there parents kept them away from me as if I was infected with a disease. As we grew those children treated me the same way there parents did. But I wore that smile to cover everything up. I just had to find a way for everyone give me even the slightest respect. That's why I'm so focused on becoming hokage. Then I recently learned how Hinata truly felt about me. It was a great feeling to know I was loved by someone so much. It was as if the love and care Hinata shows me made up for all of those miserable years. I could finally be truly happy. And with Hinata at my side I know I have a greater chance of becoming the greatest hokage that ever lived!" He finished his story with another grin then a kiss to blushing Hinata

One of the first people to react was Lee who was crying a stream of tears. "That's the saddest story I've ever h-heard."

"What your problem? Get over it." Naruto said head tilted.

"Okay" Lee's head sprang up tears gone.

"That was fast." Naruto sounded surprised because usually Lee cried more. (A/N: 50 more points to who ever can figure out where I got that scene from. Here a hint: Listen really closely to who Lee's American voice actor is.)

"Wow Naruto that's so sad." Sakura said feeling sad for rejecting him all those times.

"Yeah we had no idea." Ino said looking at the water.

"That sounds tough. I doubt anyone else in the village has as much courage as you do." Tenten said sounding amazed and sad.

"Yeah were sorry for treating you that way." Shikamaru said sounding as apologetic as he was going to get.

"I gained a little more respect for you just then. No matter how sad some one else can be. No matter what happened it could never be as bad as that." Neji said with a little admiration in his voice.

"N-Naruto-kun. I'm so happy that I made you life better." Hinata said before hugging him.

"Hey guys come on. Were supposed to be having fun!" but no one seemed to be in the mood. "Then you've left me with no choice." Was the only warning he gave before splashing the others with water that was supposedly extremely hot but wasn't that much greater than what you'd get from a shower.

"NARUTO!" They all shouted before returning the favor.

"After what seemed like minutes but was actually hours of horse playing they all began heading home. Well except for Ino and Shikamaru. "Ino I need to talk to you about something."

"Shika-kun your not trying to get me alone are you?" Ino had a sly look on her face that Shikamaru couldn't tell was from anger or interest.

"Well sort of. I mean no. I mean…" He just heaved a sigh because even though he was a genius Ino always stumped him with her double meaning questions now. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened in practice earlier today. You know the thing with Hinata and Naruto."

"Oh you mean the tag team thing. I'll admit that it was cute and all but there's no way I'm going to do that."

"That's not what I mean. It's just that our enemy is most likely powerful and I think your mind transfer might do more hurting then helping. So I want to teach you a move very important to me. But remember you can't tell anyone understand."

"Don't worry I won't. I may be one of Konoha's biggest gossips but this is something you can trust me with."

"The move I want to teach you is-"

END!

Yes I'm cutting you off there! Behold my mastery of cliffhangers! Is it me or is writing lines for Lee and Tenten hard? Tell me what you thought. Oh and like I promised the answers to my questions. The girls swimsuits came from a game called Tales of Symphonia. Which I own. The game not rights. Ino's was modeled after Sheena's (there both my favorite ninja girls and both look hot in it.) Hinata's was modeled after Collette's (It was because Hinata was a nice and pure girl who wouldn't want to show much) Tenten's after Presea's (they both had those bun things so it made since to me.) and Sakura's after Raine (since she was the only one left). And that scene with Lee and Naruto was from the digimon movie. Yes I used to watch digimon. The reason why I remember if because Rock Lee's voice sounds like Davis who was a digitamer. Well the next chapters coming your way! Stay tuned for "Last night together?"


	7. Last night together?

To the people asking if there is a sequel. Originally there was no sequel. But I hate to disappoint the fans so I decided to make one anyway. I plan to title it "after shock" so watch out for it.

To the subject of TOS I'm only on my 3rd or 4th play through. I don't get a chance to play it much because of many reasons. And I agree that the TOS swimsuits were a nice touch.

Due to a few complaints about the Shikamaru and Ino thing this will not be turned into a lemon chapter as originally planned. Sorry lemon fans. But don't fret it may not be lemon chapter but I never said that this chapter wasn't going to be so close to crossing the line to being a lemon yet it can still be qualified for a T for teen rating.

Alright you know how the fic is going so far. The Akatsuki plans an attack on Konoha; relationships develop under the heat of training. You thought it was going to be bad before? It's about to get a whole lot worse. And before I forget this fic is after the chunnin an exam, after Orochimaru's attack yet before the time skip. So the characters may be using moves you have not yet seen or heard of. And obviously I didn't let Sasuke leave the village. Wow no one seems to disapprove of what I did to Bush Brows.

Last night together?

The very next day after there little trip to the hot spring our group was summoned to the Hokage's office for the mission briefing. They were to leave Konoha, head to the Akatsuki's hideout which a fortunate/unfortunate Anbu ninja came across. They were instructed to just confront them and slow them down, injure them or decrease there numbers. The mission was of the S rank, the hardest rank of all missions. The success rate of the mission was 100 but that was because all they had to do was basically meet up with them. But what was really the problem was the return rate. There was a less than 5 chance of even one of them returning to the village, and that was only to be long enough to give a smirk that they made it back before keeling over dead. They had no choice but to except and were given three days to prepare, say good bye to loved ones and do something they may have wanted to do up to this time but haven't. This was basically a suicide mission. Those three days came and went; it was now the day of the mission.

Shikamaru, the only chunnin among them was given the role of squad leader. "Okay today's the day we leave on most likely the most dangerous mission of our lives. I hope you done all that needed to be done and said what needed to be said. No I will go over the plans for our mission. I'll only go over them once because it'll be to troublesome to do this again, so pay attention!" He said holding up a finger. "If we are to do anything from leaving the group to engage in battle we are to leave with one other member. Naruto will be paired with Sasuke-"

"What there no way I'm paring up with this creep! He'll most likely be the one that kills me instead of them!" Naruto protested

"Why should I pair up with this buffoon! He'll just slow me down or get in my way!" Sasuke agreeing with Naruto, but not in a good way.

"Hey I've saved your butt on more than one occasion!"

"Will you two stop arguing so I can continue my explanation?" The two instantly stopped bickering at Shikamaru's outburst. "The reason why I'm pairing you two up is because you've been on the same team for a long time. So you should work together better and have the highest success rate out of being paired up with everyone else." Shikamaru said sounding agitated.

"Shika-kun you have so much pent up frustration. We'll just have to fix that later won't we?" Ino suggested and winked before she kissed him on the cheek. This got his cheeks to flare.

"This had better not become a repeat of the hot spring incident." Sakura warned band sighed. Being

"What hot spring? What incident?" Kiba asked. Even Shino seemed to want to know what happened by showing some interest in what he heard. Chouji on the other hand was able to put two and two together, because he was there close friend and knew that Shikamaru liked Ino for a long time, that something similar to the kiss they just saw but the one there talking about must have made the others a little uncomfortable.

"It's none of your business dog boy." Naruto smirked with his hands behind his head.

Kiba paid little attention to Naruto's insult. "Even he knows? Come on you have to tell me!"

"Nope. It's a secret." Tenten said wagging her finger. "Naruto only knows because he was there."

"Can you guys please let me finish?" Seeing how no one made said anything he took it as a yes. "Like I said earlier Naruto and Sasuke will be a team. So will Sakura and Tenten, Chouji and Lee, Hinata and Neji. I figured that since Kiba is bringing Akamaru he wouldn't need a one of us as a teammate. I also figured the same thing for Shino and his bugs. That leaves Ino and me to be paired together." His last sentence earned him some questioning looks from the boys and girls that weren't paired up with there other. "I know what you're thinking. The reasons why I paired my self up with Ino is because we know each others moves better than most people. Sure I could have team her up with Chouji but if she uses her mind transfer jutsu Chouji would have to look after her making them both sitting ducks. I'm the only one that can watch over her without endangering everyone else." He explained 'But that won't happen because of what I taught her.' Shikamaru thought to himself remembering how he spent time with Ino teaching her "that" move.

"Hey I'm not that defenseless." Ino said with her hands on her hips sounding a little mad but Shikamaru knew she was playing because if he said the exact same thing a week and a half ago she would have decked him.

"Well I guess that's understandable." Neji, yes Neji said understanding Shikamaru's reasons for his and Ino's team up because he would have done the same if he was in his position.

"So much love awaits you two youthful friends of mine!" Lee shouted in the fashion he always did.

"Thanks I guess. But we should really get moving were wasting time." Shikamaru suggested before beginning to head of the village through the village gate.

"Wow Ino your boyfriend is such a stick in the mud." Tenten commented.

"He only acts like this on missions, especially when there supposed to be dangerous. But the stick thing I suggest you think of a thicker piece of wood, if you know what I mean." Ino said before giggling.

"Eww. Ino I don't want to think about that! How do you even know that? Did you lose your...?" Sakura said feeling a little sick.

"No way Sakura! At least not yet." Ino replied sticking her tongue out and making a V sign with her fingers. "And how do I know about that you ask? Let's just say sometimes Shika-kun can get really excited sometimes in the more of our intimate moments. Like in the hot spring."

"Ino you've become a little perv ever since you started dating Shikamaru."

"More like she's been a perv all this time but is now actually showing signs." Tenten added coming back into the conversation again.

"Hey I'm not that bad! And Shikamaru seems to like it. He likes it whole lot actually." She said before giggling again.

"Pervert." Tenten and Sakura said in unison.

After hours of traveling through the trees and stopping every now and then to take a break and rest a little or for personal reasons. Shikamaru being team leader was in possession of the map and was currently examining it a there current rest stop. "We've seem to come a lot than I originally estimated. And we appear to have shaved some ours off our time."

"So what's that mean?" Naruto asked oblivious to what Shikamaru meant.

"It means that instead of resting for just a couple of minutes we can rest the rest of the night idiot." Sasuke informed Naruto but that last caused Naruto to give him a 'you better sleep with both eyes open with the sharingan activated' look.

"Finally we need to recover our youth power so we can be better prepared for what's coming up later." Lee said almost fully recovered.

"I guess we should set up camp." Neji suggested with a small smirk. That was there queue.

"Oh no! I forgot to pack a tent!" all the girls shouted in unison on there queue.

"Ino your so forgetful. But I guess it wouldn't be to much trouble for me to share my tent with you." Shikamaru said trying to keep a straight face.

"Shikamaru you're such a pervert! Trying to take advantage of a sweet innocent girl like me just because no jounin came with us." That sentence caused everyone to think 'Ino Yamanaka was anything but sweet and innocent.' "But I guess I have no choice in the matter." Ino shrugged and sighed.

"You to Sakura. I thought that would have been one of the first things you packed. But I can't stand by and allow a girl to sit out in the cold. Especially you my beloved Sakura." Lee said with heart shaped eyes.

"Uh okay. I guess." Sakura said forcing a smile.

"Uh Neji I forgot my tent too. Can I sleep in yours?" Tenten asked looking guilty that she forgot her tent.

"Fine. Do whatever you want." Neji said before turning to set up his tent.

"Um N-Naruto I…I." Hinata approached him stammering and blushing.

"Let me guess you left your tent too?" Naruto asked with his arms behind his head. "Well I guess you can sleep in my tent." Our couples all thought 'perfect. It went exactly as we planned. They shouldn't suspect a thing.' (A/N: If you don't get what's going on you have to remember the other four, Kiba, Chouji, Sasuke and Shino don't know about the couples besides Ino and Shikamaru and Hinata and Naruto so there trying to be able to sleep with there others without arousing much suspicions. So they couldn't act like they usually would.)

"Well now that that's settled I would like to inform you that as I was going over the map I noticed that there is a spring right behind those trees." He said pointing past a couple of trees which sure enough had a spring behind it. "To be gentlemen I suggest that the women go first while we men set up the tents." The other guys reply was either a nod or they didn't say anything and began working on the tents. "Then it's agreed you girls go and by the time your back they tents should be ready and then we'll go."

"Okay." Hinata said with a nod.

"We won't be that long." Ino added.

"And no peeking." Tenten added wagging her finger.

"Bye boys." Sakura added in last. Then each of the girls blew a kiss at there guys.

"Seriously what the heck is going on!" Kiba shouted trying to get some answers. But they didn't give them. Akamaru barking in agreement.

After the tents were set up, everyone took the baths, and the boy began to return to there tents. Of course the guys who had girlfriends had a little unexpected surprise waiting for them.

Ino and Shikamaru's tent

Shikamaru had just entered his and Ino's tent when he saw Ino hastily stash something in her bag. "Ino what are you hiding?"

Ino gave a little shriek when she heard Shikamaru's voice because she didn't hear him come in. "Don't scare me like that. She then moved the bag behind her. "I'm not hiding anything." Her face turned a little shade of red.

"Ino you're a really bad liar, you know that?" He said moving closer to her until they're faces were only a few inches apart, causing Ino's face redder. "But I like that about you. It shows that you're trustworthy. But sometimes I like falling for your little tricks. I like to see where you're going to drag me. It's just so interesting." Then he gave her a kiss on the lips.

But what she didn't see was that the whole time he was talking he was reaching behind her to grab her bag. She didn't notice until she saw him swipe it and started going through it. "Shikamaru you tricked me!" She had used his full first name. Usually it was Shika or Shika-kun. But if she was using his full first name he was going to be in trouble. Ino tried to get the bag back but was having a lot of trouble. But it was too late he had found what he was looking for. He pulled out what appeared to be bandages.

Shikamaru examined them then said "There's no blood stain on them. So what could these be for?" He looked at Ino whose face was now a dark shade of red. "Huh what's wrong with-" He had finally noticed that the bandages she used for binding that would normally be around Ino's waist were missing. He shifted his gaze between the bandages, then Ino, then the bandages and Ino one last time. "Um Ino are these the bandages you had on today?"

"Yes" she replied in a low tone.

"The same you use to-"

"Yes Shikamaru. There the very same ones I was using to bind my breast down for when I'm traveling like this or fighting." Ino seemed a little mad and depressed at the same time.

"Do you have on a-"

"A bra? Nope."

"Um sorry" Shikamaru said as he scratched his head and passed the bag back to her which we snatched away from Ino. "I'm sorry I tricked you. But all those things I said are true."

"I bet" was the response he got from her. Her back was still turned to him.

"They are. Ino you know I wouldn't lie to you." Shikamaru said almost pleading. "But at least something good came out of this" He said moving towards her, then whispered "I finally get to see what it looks like under the bindings." He then ran his fingers down the crook of her spine. Shikamaru could have sworn he heard her giggle. 'What was that? Did Ino just giggle from that? Is she? Could she? No impossible. Or is it?' he thought before he ran his fingers around that general area again and he thought he heard it again. 'She just might be.' "Ino? Are you ticklish?"

Shikamaru could have sworn he just saw her stiffen at his question. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Shikamaru gave a little smirk before leaning near her ear and whispered "Ino you're such a bad liar." He then placed both his hands at her sides and proceeded with tickling her, causing her to go into a giggling fit and began squirming in his grip until he successfully subdued her under him.

"Shika-haha-maru-haha-stop-hahaha." Ino barely got out between giggles.

"No not until you say it."

"Say-haha-what-haha?"

"Say you forgive me."

"I-haha-for-haha-give-haha-you-haha-Shika-haha-maru."

"Wrong name."

"But-haha-your-name-haha-is Shika-haha-maru."

"I know but that's not the right one. I want you to say the name you gave me."

"Okay-haha-I for-haha-give-haha-you-Shika-haha-kun."

"See was that so hard?" He asked before leaning down to kiss her before he got off of her. "I can't believe you of all people are ticklish. Maybe I should tell the others?"

"Please don't tell them I have a reputation. Please don't tell Shika-kun." Ino pleaded with her hands clamped together.

"Don't worry I won't. You just look so cute when you beg how can I? Ino I love it when you beg." He said with a sly expression.

"Pervert." Ino raised her hand to slap him but she slowed her hand close to contact and gave him a playful little smack.

After Ino smacked him Shikamaru grabbed her arm and slowly eased her back down while kissing her. "You know your going to pay for that later?"

"I look forward to it." Ino and Shikamaru then re-began there little kiss. A little later Shikamaru left Ino's lips and trailed kisses from them to the base of her neck then to the other side making Ino moan. Ino's arms moved involuntarily moved up and grasped Shikamaru's hair. But when she did it barely gave due to him always having it in the pineapple hair style and began tugging at band but Shikamaru reached up and stopped her. "Take it out. Please Shika-kun."

"Ino you know I can't resist when you beg. Yet another reason why I like you. But I'll only do it if you promise not to tell anyone and if you get to take mine out I get to take yours out too." Shikamaru suggested pointing to Ino's ponytail that had now reached shoulder length since the chuunin exams but still had a little ways to go to reach its original length.

"Fine. But why do you need me to do mine? You've seen it down plenty of times when we were trying to trick people." Ino asked a little confused by his request.

"I know but that was for them. I want to be able to enjoy it knowing that it's meant for me."

Ino gave an understanding nod before leaning forward to give Shikamaru a little kiss. Shikamaru dragged her back down in a kiss him still being in the dominate position, but this time grasping the base of the other hair and pulling the band off allowing there hair to fall freely to about shoulder length. They then took this time to admire how the other look with there hair in its current state. Ino was the first to speak. "Shika-kun you look so cute like that. You should wear it that way more often."

Shikamaru groaned before saying "No way. This stay between us and I'm only going to do this every now and then. But Ino you look beautiful." He leaned forward and gave her a kiss and whispered "don't change it again. You can put it into the pony tail but nothing else. Not the color, the length nothing." Which made Ino blush and she gave a little giggle. Shikamaru loved it when Ino giggled, moaned and blushed. So now he wanted to mix them all together. He went back to kissing her neck and began to slightly tickle her. But not so much as to make her laugh uncontrollably but enough to make the tickling pleasurable.

Ino was moaning louder then she ever had before. Riding out the waves of pleasure that flowed through her body as she squirmed under Shikamaru's touch and kisses. "Mmm Shika-kuuuuun mark meee." Moaning out the sentence Ino hoped that Shikamaru knew what she meant so she wouldn't have to stop the indescribable feeling running though her. Luck for her he knew exactly what it meant. He sucked at an area near the base of her neck that would leave a little bruise that wouldn't hurt her at all but would let the world know that she was his.

Shikamaru began moving down her body and stopped near her naval, which had that heart shaped birth mark. He left quick kisses around it before moving up her body planting kisses as he went. Prior information about Ino's bra situation forgotten Shikamaru began lifting her shirt with one hand while the other still tickled her yet he didn't get a single sign of protest from Ino. He finally stopped and remembered what Ino told him when his saw out the corner of his eye what seemed to be the base of Ino's breast. And judging from the size and shape he presumed to be a C cups, 36 to be more exact. He began to stray away from them until he caught a look of disappointment flash across her face for less than a second, so he made the short trip back to them and gave the underside of each breast a little kiss. Shikamaru didn't get smacked clear the tent or nothing instead he heard Ino give a slight giggle and maybe him being called a pervert. But he was he was enjoying her taste to even care a he slid down her voluptuous figure trailing kisses passing her skirt. He began to make another line of kisses up her thighs until realized exactly what area he was so close to and rolled off of her. "Sorry. I just can't."

Ino looked a little saddened that Shikamaru had all of a sudden stopped kissing every inch of her body, stopping the waves of pleasure. "What's wrong Shika?" sounding a little worried as she sat up.

"It's just that it doesn't feel right. I don't want to go too far. It may ruin everything we have." Shikamaru explained not facing her.

"Shika I'm not that weak. I can stop you if I have to. Plus I completely trust you. Remember when you lifted my shirt? I knew you weren't going to do anything bad. You only had my best interest in mind the entire time. You were even going to avoid my breast but you saw that I seemed a little depressed when you did so you gave them a little kiss to make me feel better. I honestly thought the reason why you pulled away from me was because you were having second thoughts about us." She explained while holding him.

"I never do that Ino. I stopped because I felt that if we did this now it just wouldn't be right. I wouldn't be able to think of it as something good because I might have forced you into as a last act as a couple before the fight with them. It would be as if the only reason why we did that was because it was out of remorse that this may be our last night together and felt obligated to do." He still wouldn't face her.

"Don't worry I don't think that will happen. You've created a brilliant plan. We'll come back alive, I just know it. So please don't think that. We have our whole lives ahead of us. We're not going to die! Were going to return to the village grow older, have children and live out the rest of our lives!" Ino burst out.

Shikamaru was taken aback by the words Ino said. "You're right. I have to trust in my plan, in you and in all of us." He turned to face Ino. "Now what's this about you bearing my child?" Ino gave no response except for a rather dark blush. "Don't worry I'm not going to press the matter. For now anyway. But why aren't you calling me Shika-kun like you normally would?"

Ino gave a sly little smirk. "That's because Shika-kun is when we are being our normal lovey dovey selves." She said pushing him to the floor of the tent removing his shirt along the way and straddled his hips. She then leaned forward kissed him and said "But now you're my boy toy."

"Ino you're such a bad girl. I like it a little. But don't do it too often. But you do know bad girls have to be punished."

"What are you gonna do? Spank me?" she said mocking him. She then saw him raise a brow "Shikamaru you wouldn't dare." But as soon as she finished her sentence before placing his hand on her rear and gave a cheek a light but hard smack. She was about to yell at him but he pulled her down and gave her a long kiss. Later they would fall asleep face to face holding each other.

Hinata and Naruto's tent

"Um Naruto are you awake?" Hinata asked a little shyly.

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep." Came from Naruto sitting up to face a jacketless Hinata, but he learned not to stare in that are. "Something on you mind" He asked sincerely. The other girls made sure he noticed different moods of people and not be an idiot.

"I'm just a little worried about tomorrow. What about you?"

"Me. Couldn't be better. I'll show those Akatsuki jerks you can't mess with me!" Naruto shouted before grinning making Hinata laugh. "Well maybe I'm a little scared. But we have to do it. I have to live so I can become hokage. And I have to make sure you come back." He said before kissing Hinata, making her blush out of surprise and glee.

"You're right. I hope I'll be able to get through this." She said looking a little sad.

"Don't worry about it Neji is gonna watch you. And as long as you remember the techniques I taught you should be fine." Naruto said now holding her.

Hinata snuggled into his hug, "I know. I'll try to be brave like you Naruto-kun."

"I know you can do it. At least I'm not the only scared one. Now I can sleep better knowing that. Actually just being with you lets me sleep better." He then kissed her on a cheek.

Hinata gave a slight giggle. Her fainting spells seem to have been replaced with giggling and she barely stammered anymore. "Okay. I'll try to sleep to." The soon fell into sleeps welcoming embrace. Naruto would sleep with one arm around Hinata who'd fall asleep with her head on his chest. (A/N: I know this was kinda short but I just don't think Hinata would do something like that.)

Tenten and Neji's tent

Neji was watching Tenten shifting as she laid down possibly trying to get comfortable, but he thought otherwise when he heard her moan in pain. "What's wrong with you?"

"It's all that stupid stuff we had to carry! I think I may have hurt my back."

"Let me see?" Neji said as he began to lift the back of Tenten's top.

"NEJI!" Tenten shouted in protestation of Neji's actions and attempted to push her top back down.

"It's not what you think." He said moving her hands out of the way. "I just want to see something. Where does it hurt?"

"Um it hurts near the top of my skirt. Why do you ask?"

"You'll see." Was all he said before placed his palm to the designated area and started to concentrate.

"Neji what are you ooooh." Tenten's sentence died out into moans. "N-Nejiiii what are you doing to me?" Now she had began to squirm under his touch.

"It's a type of gentle fist move I created specifically for healing. Apparently it works on people other then me as well."

She arched her back so that they were face to face and kissed him. "Thanks fir showing it to me."

He gave a little smirk. "It gets better." He placed his other palm on her back causing her to slump back down moaning in satisfaction. "Now to add a little massage to it." Neji began to do exactly as he stated.

The massage in combination with the healing and relaxing chakra had Tenten moaning louder than she was earlier. She felt that she had to do something to make him just as happy. She pulled him down with all the strength she could muster at the time and climbed on top of him. She put a finger on his lips and said "Neji you can't let me have all the fun now can you?" and kissed him. Neji began moving his hands up and down Tenten's back massaging every muscle along the way pouring chakra into them making her moan louder. All the excitement pumping through her caused her to sit straight up on Neji's hips and bellow a long moan. Neji leaned forward and began to kiss her neck. "Ah…ah…Nejiiii." She then wrapped her arms around his neck and began to kiss him and the eased back on to the ground. After a while of this act they'd fall asleep in the same position, Tenten straddling Neji's hips while he held her.

Sakura and Lee's tent

"Hey Lee are you worried about the Akatsuki thing?" Sakura asked a concerned.

"Not at all. We shall band the power of our youth together and defeat the foe!" Lee shouted punching the air.

"But I've heard they're really strong. It'll be really dangerous. And I know if you have to you'll use the secondary lotus and risk your life for us. Don't you remember what happened last time in your fight against Gaara?" She nearly shouted the last part.

"I remember exactly what happened. I don't plan on using that move unless I truly have to. I have a last resort technique I'll use before using that. A very good one at that. My new technique allows my youth power to shine at its fullest." Lee said with a grin on his face.

Sakura was nearly moved to tears at what she just heard and lunged at Lee latching onto him. "Please Lee don't use this technique whatever it is. If it's as powerful as you say then think about how big the sacrifice must be. Please promise me you won't use it."

"I can't do that Sakura it's the strongest move I've got. It's my ace in the hold. And best of all it requires no real sacrifice. This technique will surely bring me back to you. This I swear all my youth upon." He said starring directly into Sakura's green eyes that were filling with tears.

"You'd better. Because if you don't I'm gonna make you pay. And were going to seal this little promise of ours with a kiss." She then kissed on the lips and he began to kiss her back.

When they finally broke apart Lee shouted "Yes my first kiss with a girl! And it's with my beloved youth goddess Sakura!" Sakura just sighed and giggled. "I promise Sakura I will come back." He then held her as if he let got he'd lose her which coincidentally was the same position they fell asleep in.

End of tent scenes…sorta

All of the couple had now fallen asleep. The only people who remained awake was Kiba, Sasuke and Shino. There thoughts were 'What was all that moaning I heard? What the heck is going on here?"

The next morning Ino awoke by herself boy toy now gone. She applied a different pair of bindings, fixed her hair and left the tent to find Shikamaru, his hair returned to normal, was outside with Neji and Chouji. She then heard Sakura's voice call her over to her and Hinata. "Well good morning to you too Sakura." She said as she stretched.

"Wow Ino-pig you're not a morning person are you?" Sakura mocked.

Ino hearing Sakura call her by that name thought she should get back at her by calling here forehead girl. But decided against it and said "Sakura I'm not taking any claim to that pig thing but Shika did make me squeal."

"Eww Ino did you really have to tell us that?" Sakura sounded a little disgusted. Adding insult to injury Hinata was laughing.

"No. Well where is everyone else anyway?" Ino questioned because there group looked a little to small and quiet.

"Well we sent Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba and Lee to refill our canteens. Shino went off into the wood for who knows what. And Tenten is still asleep." Sakura explained.

"Wow Neji you were so good that Tenten still need rest?" She shouted intending for it to be heard by him, causing his face to turn red.

Else where at stream the stream they were almost done refilling the canteens when a voice said "So little brother how has life been treating you?"

The four of them turned to see a man with looks similar to Sasuke's, in a black cloak with red clouds scattered across it, but strangest of all he had a Konoha head band with a slash through it. Sasuke's immediate reaction to seeing this man was for him to charge shouting "ITACHI!"

End

Yes I'm cutting you off right there! I'm so evil! Is it me or do I make this more ShikaXIno then the other couples? Well in the next chapter it's a head to head clash. "Konoha's finest vs. Akatsuki's baddest 2 on 2 matches up!" I know it's a long title but I may shorten it. Maybe. Well don't miss the conclusive chapter of this fic. And when it come don't miss the sequel "After Shock!" Let's just say one problem ma be gone but it unearthed bigger ones.


	8. The time has come!

I'm so sorry it's so late! My flash drive was accidentally deleted and my replacement for it broke so I finally got a new one to be its replacement. I think I should back stuff up on my comps hard drive and a floppy. Well that's enough rambling on with the fan fiction!

Chapter 8 the Time Has Come

Lee, Naruto, Kiba and Sasuke turned back at the sound of the voice. Almost without hesitation Sasuke charged shouting "Itachi!"

The man that Sasuke knew as Itachi didn't even flinch. He sighed before saying "Foolish little brother have you learned nothing?" Then in one swift motion he slammed Sasuke onto the ground and planted his foot firmly on his chest. "Then maybe I should remind you. Megekyo Sharingan!" Soon Sasuke was shouting out in agonizing pain. Itachi kicked him before turning to the others. "Pathetic. I hope you and your friends put up a better fight."

"O-our friends?" Lee asked a little confused.

"Naruto these must be the guys Tsunade was talking about." Kiba whispered to Naruto.

"Yeah, and if they're as strong this guy they'll have a lot of trouble. See if you two can get by him and warn the others." Naruto explained to the two before they took off back to the camp ground.

Surprisingly Itachi once again didn't even flinch; he didn't even make a move to stop the pair. "So fox child, you believe you can defeat me by yourself? Let's see if you can do better than my brother."

"I may not win but I'm not gonna lose. I've got a lot of people waiting for me. And I can't let them down, I won't let them down. I'm gonna show them that I have what it takes to be the best hokage that ever lived. Shadow clone jutsu!" With that three Naruto's appeared, kunai in each hand like the original and together they charged at Itachi.

Back at camp everyone was finally out and about. Except Shino who wandered away from camp earlier that morning in search of insects. Everyone was startled when Kiba and Lee came crashing into the camp area shouting something at the exact same time that no one understood. Ino walked over to them and slapped each of them before saying "Calm down and talk slowly so we can under stand you!"

"We were attacked!" Lee shouted.

"Those Akatsuki people are here!" Kiba added in.

"What the heck are you talking about? I just scanned this area with the Byakugan and I've detected no one." Neji said as calm as day in a smug attitude.

"Then I suggest you get your eyes examined boy…yeah!" An almost feminine voice in the tree tops called.

What the heck?!" Everyone shouted almost simultaneously and looked up at the trees to see the outlines of six figures in the trees.

"How the heck did they sneak up on us?! Dang we've got no time to prepare. Everyone grab what you can and go after them!" Shikamaru shouted before everyone scrambled grabbing what they needed.

But the six ninjas were already gone. All you heard was an echo that said "If it's a fight you're looking for it's a fight you'll get. But you'll have to find us first." Soon after, the teams took off to follow a separate ninja out of the six.

Kiba and Akamaru vs. Kisame

"Okay it's pointless at hiding. My nose can smell anything and you reek of fish!" Kiba said which Akamaru barked in agreement to.

"You're quite skilled at tracking boy. To bad this will be the last time you'll use that skill. For I Kisame, one of the seven swordsman of the mist shall be you executioner!" A man with blue fish scales, webbed feet and hands stepped out from behind a tree with a sword in hand!"

"Cool fishman!" Kiba shouted and Akamaru barked something that made him say. "No Akamaru you can't eat him!" Akamaru started to whine. "Whatever let's just get this over quickly." He tossed Akamaru a soldier pill before eating one him self. "You say you're from the mist, yet if you haven't noticed there isn't a single drop of what where we are. Ninja art of beast mimicry!" Kiba took the shape of something between a human and beast. Akamaru barked 'Ninja art of human mimicry.' He soon took the shape of the man-beast Kiba became. The pair then shouted "Man-beast doppelganger!"

"Nice trick. Even without water my blade is enough to beat you!" Kisame then took off the wrapping on his blade to reveal that it was made out of shark scales! (A/N: since when do sharks have scales? Kishimoto-san are you making this up?")

"Let's see how good your blade is when it's broken! Down on all fours technique!" The pair lunged at Kisame with chakra flowing to their hands and feet so they could crush him. But Kisame put his sword up as a shield and was able to deflect there attack but they hit him with such force it actually made a small crater around him. Kisame then swung with all his might and sent the flying back. "W-what the heck is this?" Kiba studied his hand to see that some skin had been shaved off. But it was only a flesh wound with some blood here and there. "Let's see you defend against this!" He tossed some smoke bombs at Kisame before he and Akamaru jumped to hide in the trees.

"Smoke…in…gills! Can't…breath!" Kisame gasped before nearly collapsing but he used his sword to support him.

"You've got to be kidding me! You're gonna let some smoke kill you? Well I'll have to put you out of your misery then! Let's go Akamaru, the ultimate man-beast taijutsu fang over fang!" They both flew from around a tree in a wild spin targeting Kisame. They did light slices on his body before they clung onto the side of two trees adjacent to each other, they was diagonal to Kisame right and left. "The finishing blow!" They went into another spin charging straight for Kisame's vitals.

But the smoke had cleared enough for him to see the two speeding towards him. Kisame put his sword up at almost the last second and was able to block the two. "That was too close for comfort. Any later and I…W-what is this?" Kisame had noticed that his sword was cracking. He quickly pushed the two away to prevent his sword from breaking.

"I thought we had him. Well we won't last long if we fight like this." Kiba said as he examined his and Akamaru's replica jacket, which were ripped to tatters. The quickly removed the item so they wouldn't be slowed down by it.

"Y-you damaged my precious sword! You'll pay for this!" Kisame lunged at the pair and did a horizontal swing trying to take their heads off. But the ducked under the blow and lost a couple strands of hair before tackling Kisame sending him back. But Kisame was persistent; he continued to hack wildly at the pair. They had to star using the trees as spring boards to dodge blows wile the other snuck in an attack.

"Stop avoiding the inevitable!" Kisame took one swing at Kiba who narrowly jumped the swing. They then realized they caught a lucky break, his sword was stuck in the tree!

"Sword stuck? Then let me unstick it for you! Down on all fours technique!" Kiba jumped out of the tree and slammed Kisame's face into his own sword. While his face was rebounding off the blade Akamaru gave a power slash to his midsection, which in turn removed the sword from the tree. The pair jumped into a nearby tree to see if Kisame would jump back up. After a while he struggled to stand up. "Wow fishman is still going!"

"I'm not a fish!"

"Well whatever you are you are going down!" Kiba pulled a scroll from his pocket smeared blood on it before saying. "Earth style, shinobi conjuring: Fanged vengeance technique!"

Eight dogs sprang up from the ground and latched themselves onto Kisame. "I c-can't move!"

"That's the point! Now one more time, fang over fang!" The pair went back into a spin and shot out of the tree and targeted Kisame. But Kisame had just enough strength to move his sword in their path.

"Not the sword again!" The pair collided with the sword. But this time with there combined drilling power they cracked the sword even more until it broke! They then attacked Kisame's body directly.

The force was so great that it undid the summoning and the backlash power shot back into Kisame and launched him into a tree. "I-Itachi sir…it l-looks like I've failed you." He coughed up blood before losing consciousness.

"Yahoo we beat fishman!" Kiba cheered. Akamaru once returned to normal barked. "No Akamaru I said you couldn't eat him! We have to tie him up and take him back to the others."

Shikamaru and Ino vs. Deidara

They had arrived in a small clearing after chasing their target. "Shika-kun I think we lost them. I can't see him anywhere." Ino said as she scanned the area, seeing no sign of movement.

"Will you stop calling me that?" Shikamaru asked Ino almost pleading.

"Why, I thought you liked it when I called you that?" She asked latching onto his arm.

Shikamaru snatched his arm away almost immediately. "It's too troublesome to explain." He looked at Ino to see that she was wearing her infamous puppy dog eye pleading look combined with her equally as dangerous tell me or I'll slap you so hard you'll forget everything look. He sighed, scratching his head before saying "Man this is such a drag. Well you see Ino it's just that if the enemy saw us being intimate they'll try to use that against us."

Ino's mood lightened a little. "So you were trying to protect me? Aww that's so sweet of you." Shikamaru groaned before turning around in the direction Ino was pointing when he heard her gasp, kunai in hand.

She smacked him over the head before saying "Put that away. It's just a bird. The reason why I gasped was because I've never seen one outside of the village." Shikamaru stared at the bird that appeared to be a brown blue jay for a good minute before throwing his kunai at it. "Shikamaru why the he-" Her words were interrupted when a loud boom came from the direction of the bird which appeared to have exploded. "A letter bomb, how could you?"

"Ino look closer. That explosion was way too big for a simple letter bomb and you didn't see me throw one. And like you said the reason you've never seen that bird outside of the village is because they normally wouldn't hang around heavily wooded areas like this. Plus it was brown. The explosion I can't explain."

"Very good, you saw through my clay animal bombs…yeah." What appeared to be a female stepped onto the branch the bird was just on. "Maybe it was too big. I'll make a smaller one next time…yeah."

"…Okay this is really weird." Shikamaru said as he shifted his glance from Ino to this new adversary.

"Shikamaru if you're trying to say that I'm going to be like her when I'm older you'll be in a lot of pain." Ino said cracking her knuckles.

"This is such a drag. How do you fight a girl that looks like your girlfrie- umm best friend?" Shikamaru groaned rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm sorry but who the hell are you calling a girl, I'm a guy! My name is Deidara…yeah!"

Shikamaru and Ino almost doubled over laughing. "Y-you're a guy? I'm s-sorry but you just look so, so girly." Shikamaru said between breaths. He stopped suddenly when he heard a flapping noise behind him. He lunged at Ino tackling her to the ground just as another clay bird swooped over them. The bird curved back targeting the two once again. This time the arm Shikamaru would normally use to reach for a kunai was stuck under Ino. He used his other arm to reach behind Ino and grab one from her kunai pouch and throw it at the clay bird destroying it. After the smoke cleared Deidara seemed to have disappeared. "Where'd he go? Well I guess it's as good of a time as any to test these out." Shikamaru pulled out ten kunai with letter bombs attached and threw them in random directions, he then pulled out an ordinary kunai as if waiting for something.

They waited a few seconds yet there was no explosion. "It seems that your explosives are defective but mine how ever are fine…yeah."

Shikamaru and Ino stood back to back, kunai drawn, waiting for another clay bird. They didn't see anything. Ino looked towards the ground and saw a small horde of spiders coming their way. Just to be safe, she tossed a kunai at them and one exploded! This set off a chain reaction causing the others to blow up. "Looks like we'll have to be wary of everything huh, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru remained silent still waiting for whatever he was still waiting for. An explosion went off at his side, he threw his kunai in the direction of the explosion. He smiled in satisfaction as he heard a cry in pain before seeing Deidara fall to the ground in front of them. "Looks like it worked after all."

"W-what was that?" Deidara asked as he struggled to lift his self from the ground with the arm with a kunai stuck in it.

"They're a Nara family original. There proximity letter bombs, or P.L.B's for short. Get so close to one and boom." Shikamaru explained the secret behind one of his family's trademark items.

"Shikamaru you're so cool!" Ino cheered.

"This is no time to celebrate, our job isn't finished." He warned here as he watched Deidara pull the kunai from his arm and reach into his tool bag. But what was strange to Shikamaru was that he pulled out the exact same kunai but it didn't seem as metallic anymore. When Deidara threw it at them he finally realized what it was, he grabbed onto Ino pulling her up a nearby tree and out of the way of the kunai. But it did something unexpected it sprouted wings and curved upwards to wards them. "Dang, no time to reach for a kunai!" He threw Ino onto a branch in the tree while he used the kunai he used to anchor himself to the tree to swing after her. And the kunai bird flew into the tree tops where it exploded. Shikamaru pulled out another kunai waiting for any sign of movement from Deidara.

"If you're looking for me you might want to check above you…yeah." Deidara was above the hanging from the branch above them. He dropped a clay bomb upon them but Shikamaru pulled him and Ino to safety. But Deidara was aiming for the tree branch itself. The branch shook from the explosion and snapped under Ino and Shikamaru's weight! They would have fallen to their deaths if Shikamaru didn't grab the branch below them, with one hand grabbing onto the branch while the other was holding onto Ino. Deidara appeared standing on the branch they were clinging to. "Nice save boy. But now you only have limited choices…yeah. You both fall to your deaths, you could throw the girl to me while you fall to your death, you could drop the girl and I kill or you could pull both of you up then I kill both of you. Either option you pick I still win…yeah."

'He's right. I'm at the end of my rope…well branch. This is going to be such a drag if Ino and I are the only ones that die. There has to be a way out of this.' Shikamaru saw a small glint of metal behind Deidara. 'It's one of my proximity bombs!' He looked down at Ino and whispered "I have an idea. I'm going to throw you up there and I need you to kick hi m toward the tree trunk, ok?" She nodded in agreement, Ino didn't know what he had planned but whatever it was it was better than this. Shikamaru threw Ino onto the branch with Deidara where she kicked him into the trees trunk setting off another one of Shikamaru's bombs. Under the cover of the smoke Shikamaru jumped onto the branch and launched his shadow possession jutsu! "Just as I planned. Now you have to copy my every movement." Shikamaru began making those weird hand motions of his. "Ino, would you mine tacking that little pouch at his side for me?"

"Huh, okay sure." Ino began to make her way over to Deidara when his arm all of a sudden snapped forward and pushed her away. "What the hell, Shikamaru?! I thought you had his movements under control"

"I do but if you'd look at your feet you'd see why I had to push you away." Shikamaru said back to her kind of irritated because he had just saved her life.

"My feet?" Ino looked down just in time to see that another horde of explosive clay bugs were inches away from blowing off her legs. She quickly jumped back and threw a kunai at the bugs setting off small explosions. "I'm tired of this! Shikamaru, I'm going to have that move even though you told me not to." She made a hand sign that made the area between her hands look like a heart.

"No Ino, don't!" Shikamaru shouted in protest.

But it was too late. "Art of the sweet heart valentine!" Ino had launched her family's signature technique. Ino's body went limp and would have fallen off the branch if Shikamaru hadn't caught her in time after releasing his hold on Deidara so that Ino had complete control of his body. She instantly grabbed the pouch Shikamaru had instructed her to and threw that of the branch before returning to her own body.

"Huh, what? I guess your Shadow possession jutsu doesn't last very long does it…yeah. And it seems that girl has run out of steam for some reason." (A/N: No one can recall what happens when Ino uses this technique. The Sakura thing was different.) Deidara began to reach for his pouch, well where his pouch would have been. "W-what? Where's my dirt to make my explosive clay?"

"If you mean that pouch of yours I got rid of it!" Ino barely shouted do to her family's technique draining so much of her energy.

"Yep so it's game over." Shikamaru added in. But Deidara began to chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"You. You actually thought you won…yeah? When we found out Konoha was sending a crack team of ninjas to stop us I thought that I should prepare something special. So I brought my 5th strongest explosive clay with me…yeah. This one was meant for close range combat anyway." Deidara replied smugly.

"But how will you use it when your bag is all the way down there?" Ino asked trying to see through his bluff.

But he wasn't bluffing. "I've had it with me the entire time. It's right here." Deidara exposed the palm of his hand to reveal that there was a mouth in it! Ino shivered in disgust in Shikamaru's arms. "This is where I get the moisture to make my clay bombs. I've been saving this one special for a moment like this…yeah." He began to bring the clay bomb from the mouth of his palm.

'Aww crud! If this thing is the strongest weapon he has were done for! And I can't make a great escape with Ino in this condition. Come on genius guy think!' Shikamaru mentally shouted to himself.

Flash back

"Shikamaru are you listening?! Wake up boy!" The voice of a man with similarities to Shikamaru shouted to the much younger snoozing genius. This man was none other than his father Shikaku. "I'm trying to teach you a very important technique!"

"But do I really need it I already know how to do the shadow possession jutsu what big of a difference will this shadow binding jutsu do?" The young Shikamaru complained.

"This move can mean life or death when you need to protect some one dear to you. Now I want you to listen carefully…Shikamaru are you nodding off again?" In fact he was already asleep.

End flash back

'Great, what a time to nod off! The one move that could save our lives and I had to fall asleep. This is such a drag. I have no other choice but to wing it!' Shikamaru gathered as much charka has he could and sent is down to his shadow and shot it forward all the while thinking 'please work. I have to save Ino. I must save her. I can't let her die in a place like this when there's the chance I could have done something.' The whole time his eyes were closed practically praying.

"Whatever you're planning it won't…yeah. Your fate has been seale-" Deidara was cut of when his talking became gagging.

"S-Shikamaru w-what's happening?" Ino nudged him so he could open his eyes.

When he opened him he say that his shadow had extended like it normally would but instead it shot up Deidara's body and stopped at his neck in the shape of hand that seemed to be choking him. "T-this is it! The Nara family's most sacred technique, the true shadow binding jutsu!" Shikamaru focused a little more and the shadow hand clenched around Deidara's neck crushing his wind pipe before dropping him, letting him fall off the tree branch towards the ground hitting every branch on the way.

"Is he dead?" Ino asked a little scared.

"I don't think so but we have to go down there and bring him into custody any way." Shikamaru swung down the branches with Ino on his back until they landed right next to Deidara. Shikamaru checked for a pulse, there was one. "He's still alive." He examined Deidara's face to see that behind the one strand of hair he had covering one eye was no eye at all but instead some kind of lines. "That must be how they found us. I just have one question how do I get the two of you back to camp?"

End

I'm sorry it's so late. I had to cut out some fight for now. It's because you guys waited so patiently that I couldn't let you guys continue waiting without anything to hold you over. So this fic will be extended a couple of more chapters so it can support every fight. Thanks so much for waiting and not getting pissed and forgetting about this fic.


	9. Plants and puppets oh my!

Okay and were back for another great fight between team Shikamaru (only chuunin that's why) and the Akatsuki! Things were heated in the first round but now here's the second. We have one more round (maybe) after this until the great throw down between our favorite teams and Hitachi! But I don't want to spoil it all so here we go, fiction time! But let me warn you I wasn't able to find any and I mean any jutsus for Zetsu so I'll be using techniques I've borrowed from the Rave Master manga (who's rights I do not own) and one home grown one. Ha-ha! Get it grown? Because Zetsu's a plant…you guys don't know what funny is.

Chapter 9 Plants and puppets oh my!

Zetsu vs. Shino Aburame

Earlier that day when Shino left the group to scan the area he came across a plant that seemed to be a giant venues fly trap. He did what any other smart person would have done in his position, he kicked it!

Instantly after kicking the strange plant it jumped out of the ground and it wasn't a plant at all it was a human, sort of. What appeared in front of Shino was a man with a plants head around his neck, the Akatsuki uniform, but strangest of all the left side of his body was black while the right side was white. (A/N: I'm not entirely sure if those are the right sides) "So you were able to see through my plant disguise technique. It won't happen again for no one can catch Zetsu, the hidden plant ninja!"

"I know it won't. I'm not gonna give you time to run." Shino said and the next thing Zetsu knew was that he had taken a face full of bugs. "You can't hide from them they're bugs and bugs love plants.

Zetsu gave a slight growl at the site of the bugs. "I hate bugs but that won't stop me from killing you! Seed Vulcan jutsu!" Zetsu jumped back and fused with a random tree just as a few small plants began to shoot seeds at Shino like bullets.

Shino was forced to bob and weave through the seed bullets but his luck ran out when one caught him in the hand. "W-what the heck is this?" Shino said whilst he examined his hand to see that in the exact spot that the seed had hit him grew a tiny plant. Shino was growing weak. "T-this thing, it's feeding on my chakra!"

"Your right boy in a matter of minutes you'll be sucked bone dry and I will be proclaimed a hero!

"Yeah you would is it wasn't for my bugs." Shino said as he rose to his feet. From his hiding place, Zetsu used that freaky eye of his to see that Shino's bugs had devoured the plant on Shino's hand! "Dang bugs, they're so pesky. If only I had a can of raid.

"But you don't." Shino slammed his palm onto the ground letting his chakra flow into it and out in the shape of spider webs. Next thing he saw was Zetsu leaping from his hideaway covered in bugs. "I can call other bugs to my aid when ever I want. So that means there isn't anywhere you can hide where I can't find you."

"Well let's see your stupid bugs help you with this! Albero blade technique!" Out of the ground this time sprouted a few trees which seemed to have come alive and their branches were swinging wildly at Shino. He tried ducking under the branches and jumping over them, but what if he used them to his advantage. Shino began using the swinging branches themselves to dodge. When ever he had a clear shot at Zetsu he let a kunai fly! But Zetsu wasn't going to let some kid beat him. He now had the trees strike at each other to hit Shino. Within minutes most of the branches were destroyed except for one and since Shino didn't have another branch to jump to he took the full force of the hit and was blown into a tree. He staggered to his feet almost keeling over.

"God you're annoying! But I doubt you'll survive my next attack. Fell the full force of my albero blade and seed Vulcan jutsu combo!" New tree's sprouted where the old destroyed one stood and swung their branches wildly at Shino while smaller plants sprouted from the ground and rapidly fired seeds at him. It looked like the end for Shino as the attacks crashed into him where he stood kicking up dust. Zetsu began to laugh maniacally "It's over! No one has ever survived that attack combo and survived!" His laughing came to an abrupt stop when he heard a loud buzzing sound. "What the heck is this infuriating racket?"

He got his answer when the smoke finally cleared revealing a swarm of birds in the shape of a dome where Shino once stood. When the bugs dissipated there stood a nearly unharmed Shino. "It's my bug barrier. It'll take more than that to get through this."

Zetsu snarled at his comment. "Then you've forced me to use the strongest plant jutsu I know." Zetsu began to gather his chakra before slamming his palm on the ground and the two watched the chakra wave spread out and enter the roots of the surrounding trees.

"That's it? This is your ultra power move? I'm not impressed. W-what the heck?" Shino's gloating turned to surprise as roots of the trees that Zetsu's chakra entered shot out towards him and as they neared him the shot up and spiraled around him and formed a giant tree, which for some reason appeared to be dead with not a single leaf.

"This is the strongest plant jutsu in existence. Now experience the power of the great tree Yggdrasil!" The tree burst into life and sprouted leaves that glowed blue. "This tree drains the power of my enemies as it grows and when it's done you're chakra will be given to me!" Zetsu began to laugh maniacally again until he saw the supposed great trees glow stop before it died and started to fall apart. "W-what's going on? It's impossible! The great tree Yggdrasil can't be destroyed!"

Shino stood in the middle of the destroyed tree smirking. "You might be right. It may drain your enemy's energy but it'll all give in if your enemy can drain its energy right back. I doubt you have any chakra left after that but to be safe, go my destruction beetles!" Shino bugs charged forward swarming Zetsu draining him of every last drop of chakra still left in his body. Shino charged forward and delivered the last blow knocking Zetsu of his feet and onto the ground unconscious.

Rock Lee and Choji Vs. Sasori of red sand (puppet form)

"Come on Lee can't we slow down just a little?" Choji asked struggling to keep up with Lee.

"We don't have too, we've already caught him." Lee said as he landed in a small clearing where a rather round figure sat in its center. "You're quite agile for your size but you can't escape from Konoha's handsome devil, my name is Rock Lee!" Rock Lee introduced himself before taking his battle pose.

The figure turned to them exposing his face that looked almost inhuman. "Well where I come from I'm Sasori of red sand. And it seems your friend fatso is almost ready to keel over before we've even begun."

Choji twitched at Sasori's comment. "W-what did you say?"

"Nothing besides what you are fatso!" Sasori repeated mocking Choji.

Something inside of Choji snapped. "I'M NOT FAT, I'M JUST BIG BONED!"

"Wow then how big are your bones?" Sasori chuckled at his own joke.

That was the final straw. Choji was pissed now. He made the hand sing for one of his family's signature techniques. "Art of the human bolder!" Choji's body expanded before he tucked his head in. "Chubbies rule!" His body began rotating so fast that it launched it's self towards Sasori with full intension to crush him.

"W-what kind of jutsu if this?!" Sasori barely rolled out of the way of being crushed. "He looks like a giant meatball rolling around." Sasori continued laughing until he saw Choji rebound off of a tree and launch himself sky ward.

"Now it's time for the art of the huge human bolder!" Choji's body expanded even more as he came crashing down a too surprised to react Sasori. Choji continued to rotate in one direction until he came to a complete stop before rotating in the other direction to get him self out of the little crater he made where he landed on Sasori before he returned to his normal size.

Lee inched himself and looked into the crater to see Sasori's limp body just laying there. But the strangest part was that Sasori's Akatsuki's uniform was completely ripped off revealing that where a normal person's back would be was a mask! At the bottom of the mask was Sasori's head. Lee turned to his assigned comrade and shouted "Choji this is just a puppet! The real body is somewhere else."

"Aww man and I thought I was over." Choji groaned and put away his freshly opened bag of chips. "But if it's a puppet where's the guy pulling the puppet master?"

"Closer than you think!" Sasori's puppet sprang to life and out of the mouth of the mask shot a tail that slashed Lee along the back.

But thankfully a split second before the tail cut into Lee he tried to evade it but it sill reached him and just cut his jacket off his back. "It seems that we won't have time to play with this adversary. It's time to get serious!" Lee reached down and removed the weights from his legs. "It's only a matter of time before we find your puppet master and take him down.

Sasori's began to chuckle, his laugh echoing through the wood. "You two know nothing of puppet masters. Usually a puppet master would control there puppet with strings of chakra. Yet you see none for I am the puppet and puppet master, Sasori of red sand! But I doubt even with this info you'll survive."

Choji shook his head furiously "That can't be possible! The puppet can't be the puppet master too. This doesn't make sense!"

"Choji calm down." Lee advised him. "It's as he said. He is both the puppet and the puppet master because the puppet master is inside!" Exclaiming the last part before he took off toward Sasori. Sasori's tail shot out towards Lee, who this time jumped and landed right on the tail and continued running towards Sasori. Feet from him Lee sprung up into the air. "We just have to crack him open!" Lee began flipping as he fell towards Sasori. He outstretched his leg and performed an axe kick, but it was blocked by Sasori's left arm, the spiked arm. Lee barely managed to inch he arm to the side so that it just missed the spikes and caught Sasori's shoulder and used that to flip of placing him behind the puppet master. Leaf hurricane!" Lee went into a spin planning to let Sasori get a taste of his almighty spin kick but it was blocked by his tail.

"It seems you have some skill but your friend doesn't seem to be much help." Sasori just made a big mistake. He turned his back to Choji.

"Partial expansion technique!" Choji shouted before he arm grew to more than five times its normal size and smacked Sasori into a tree with it. The force was so great that it actually put a small crack in Sasori's armor.

"I can't believe you were able to crack my favorite puppet!" Sasori was mad now. But it wasn't your standard mad it was anger driven by fear. His puppets armor had never been broken much less cracked.

"We've already cracked your armor now all we have to do is break it and break you!" Lee charged forward and dodged Sasori's tail again. Sasori expecting another jumping axe kick lunged to the side but Lee lunged with him and his fist met Sasori's puppets face.

The head instantly snapped back into position with its mouth open and shot out a net! Lee became ensnared in the trap. Lee struggled to reach his kunai pouch before pulling out a kunai and cutting him free from the net and tossed the kunai at Sasori who blocked it with his spiked arm. "That's just one of the many traps that this body hides but the others are much more fun. And when I'm done with you I'm going to hollow you out and turn you into puppets."

Choji face gained a darkened expression "I'm going to be sick. I don't want to be a puppet."

"Turning your fallen adversaries into puppets is something I cannot allow! Choji it's time to test the sling shot technique!"

"Right, partial expansion technique! Ready!" Choji said as he prepared for said technique. Sasori look confused at what the two were doing because even with Choji's arm at that size it still wouldn't reach him. Lee jumped into Choji's hand, who pulled it back and launched Lee forward aimed directly at Sasori.

Lee outstretched his leg planning to get through the puppet and taking Sasori out. Sasori put his left arm up as a shield. "Not that stupid thing again!" Lee wasn't changing direction this time. With his kicking power amplified by Choji's throw Sasori had might as well be holding up a piece of drift wood. When Lee's foot met Sasori's arm it snapped it clean off and Lee foot collided directly with the center of Sasori's chest. This time it put a gaping hole in the puppet revealing red hair. It was the hair of the real Sasori.

"D-darn you impudent whelps!" Called the voice of Sasori that echoed through the hole in the puppets armor.

"Choji it seems that the under side of the puppet is the weakest area in defense, so that's out target." Lee charged in again but this time a slot opened on Sasori's chest. Expecting another net Lee lunged to the side. But instead of a net out came a purple fog. Lee just escaped the fog as it hit a small rabbit that passed by. The rabbit seemed to go into a coughing fit before lying motionless. "Poison gas?! It seems that I have to awaken all of my power." Lee pulled out a bottle from his too bag. "This is the great medicine that Tsunade gave me and it shall give me great power." (A/N: bottle clearly reads "sake." For those of you who don't know Lee was given medicine by Tsunade so he could recover and be a ninja after the chuunin incident. One day he confused his medicine bottle with a bottle of sake. Not knowing what sake was he drunk it and drunken fist Lee was born!) Lee quickly downed the entire bottle before giving one of those thirst quenched sighs before his cheeks turned bright red. He was drunk. He gave an un-understandable shout before charging forward. Sasori's tail shot out again. This time Lee's dodge resembled him falling over drunk, yet he continued to run while on all fours. Once he reached Sasori he through an uppercut at Sasori, which he backed away from but took a spin kick to the face. Lee took this opportunity to jump off the ground flip upside down and kicked the puppet Sasori in the back of the head.

Sasori swung with his right arm trying to swat Lee "You're like a flee you know that?" Sasori swung his tail around and used it to smack Lee into a tree.

Lee flipped and kicked off the tree and lunged at Sasori tackling him into Choji. Choji pulled his arm back "Partial expansion technique!" Choji swung launched him skyward.

Lee kicked off the ground and used tree branches to get to Sasori aerial hight before launching towards him. He grabbed onto him and said. "Primary hic lotus!" He sent them both into a spin before slamming Sasori into the ground. There was a large dust explosion. When it cleared it showed Lee doing some freaky running in place dance and Sasori laying on the ground puppet armor almost completely gone. Then Sasori staggered to his feet, his tail inoperable and most of the armor on his chest gone and more than half of the mask armor on his back was gone. "I thought hic I won. hic Choji time for hic the volleyball technique hic."

Choji nodded his head before running towards Sasori. He readied his partial expansion technique and smacked him skyward. "Bump!" Next Lee tied one of his arm wraps around Choji's arm. Choji threw Lee skyward and the force pulled Chouji after him and they rested above Sasori. "Set!" Chouji expanded his entire body.

Lee flipped before kicking Choji downward on Sasori. "Spike!" The speed of the falling Choji pined Sasori to it before they hit the ground and flattened him against it destroying his armor upon impact. Sasori was knocked unconscious between the crushing weight of Choji and the earth. "Wohoo we did it!" Lee shouted before doing his strange dance again before passing out drunk.

"Aww don't tell me I have to drag both of you back to the camp site." Chouji grumbled before picking up the bottle Lee drunk before going crazy, pocketed it before dragging Lee and Sasori back to camp.

End!

Sorry I know you want more but I'm not called Shikamaru for nothing. I'm lazy and I'm only gonna dish out to fight per chapter until the chapter with the Naruto and Sasuke vs. Itachi. You just have to sit through the fight of the Hyuuga squad and Tenten and Sakura's fight.

Naruto: Stop being lazy and let me fight, dattebayo!

Sasuke: Yeah I want to take revenge for my clan!

Ino: Even Shika isn't this lazy

Me: Ino when it comes to what I have you two do on your personal time when you're alone isn't relative to this.

And just so you guy know I'm planning to do a one-shot lemon fic with Ino and Shikamaru when I'm done. That's for the ones who are asking me for a lemon.


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